Choices
by Obsidian3
Summary: It's the choices we make that make us who we are. multi-fandom crossover Alice/Mirana, Dorothy/Ozma
1. Chapter 1

Yeah, I know, another new fic. You'd think my muse had no attention span or someth- Oh, shiny!

Title: Choices (1/?)  
Pairing: Alice/Mirana (White Queen)  
Rating: PG-13, for now  
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the recognizable characters. There will be some OCs, yes, but chances are they won't be main characters.  
Summary: It's the choices we make that make us who we are. 

* * *

She couldn't have said exactly what it was that had woken her up.

For a long while, she simply lay in the darkness, trying to discern what had disturbed her rest. The dark itself held no fear for her, nor had it ever. Not even the Jabberwocky had changed that. She didn't hear anything out of the ordinary, merely the creaking of wood and spray of the ocean that she'd become so accustomed to in the year since she'd first set foot aboard the _Wonder_. She couldn't even detect the muffled voices of the crew, which told her that it was very early, indeed.

And yet, she could not fall back asleep. Now that she was fully awake, she felt a curious impulse to get out of bed, to get moving, to _do _something. Only, there was really nothing for her _to _do. She had no duties at present. She merely felt restless, with an odd feeling in her stomach that was somewhere between hunger and nausea. And given that the only time she'd been seasick had been while the ship had endured a rather nasty storm...

"You're being foolish," she told herself quietly, even as she slid out from under the covers and began the rather lengthy process of getting dressed. (Thankfully, she was, at least, able to forgo having to don a corset. She was on the ship for a reason, after all, and that reason was _not _to lure men.) "There is nothing wrong." Even as she said it, though, she realized that was what she felt: that same ball of anxiety that sat in her stomach whenever it seemed as if a negotiation was about to go badly, or when people kept telling her that _she _was destined to be Underland's champion and slay the Jabberwocky. That _something _wasn't right.

And one of the many things that Alice Kingsleigh had learned during that adventure was to pay attention to her instincts.

She finished buttoning up the powder blue frock coat given to her by Lord Ascot to stave off the chill of the sea air that first day and left her small cabin. She'd often amused herself in the beginning by thinking of her mother's probable reaction to being expected to stay in such quarters, and how she would likely demand to be moved into the finest stateroom that they had. The _Wonder _was a merchant vessel, however, and as such passenger accommodations were limited. Far from being put off, Alice only appreciated being treated the same as everyone else. Having a woman aboard a ship was unusual, to say the least, and to have one in the position she was in... Well, not everyone would have taken orders from her, no matter _whose _apprentice she was. Lord Ascot had assembled a good crew, no doubt.

She inhaled deeply as she walked out onto the deck, enjoying the salty tang of the sea air. It was a bit chillier then usual, as the sun hadn't yet risen, leaving the sky a murky shade somewhere between black and midnight blue. A few stars were still visible, and as she reached the rail she noted that she could just make bout the shining moon overhead. It was so white and radiant, she couldn't help but be reminded of-

_No. Don't think about it. _

It was too late, though, of course. She'd already made the critical mistake of allowing herself to remember the Jabberwocky, and all those who'd been so confident that she was their savior, "the" Alice. Once she'd opened the door a little, everything - everyone - else had snuck through before she could stop it.

_"The Vorpal Sword is home again. The armor is complete. Now all we need... is a champion." _

She clutched the rail and drew in a ragged breath as an entirely different sensation slammed into her with seemingly physical force. It was like that, sometimes. There were days when thoughts of Underland would rarely, if ever, cross her mind; then there were days when she could barely think of anything else. The worst was when, as they did now, memories of what she'd left behind rose up and struck at her without warning.

_"You're a little taller then I thought you'd be." _

She could truthfully say that, with one or two obvious exceptions, she missed everyone she'd met in Underland. (Except perhaps Absolem, whom she's reasonably confident she'd encountered more then once when the _Wonder _was in port back home.) But for reasons she couldn't quite explain, even in her own head, only one of them made her heart clench so severely that she might have gone to see a doctor the first time it had happened, had they not been at sea.

_"I had hoped to have a champion by now." _

"Stop it," she whispered to herself, eyes stinging with unshed tears. It was no use, though. Once her thoughts had strayed in this particular direction, they stayed there until she could find something to distract herself with. It was telling - though telling of **what**, exactly, she hadn't yet worked out - that whenever she thought of Underland, no matter who or what she might be thinking of, always, **always**, her thoughts would drift to the White Queen, Mirana of Marmoreal.

That she was beautiful could not be denied. She was also kind, compassionate... Somewhat quirky, perhaps, but Alice firmly believed that all the best people were mad, so that didn't bother her in the slightest. And graceful? Oh, yes. So much so that she seemed to dance more then walk. Alice had looked up the meaning of the word Marmoreal after her return to the "real" world: of, relating to, or suggestive of marble or a marble statue especially in coldness or aloofness. That did seem to suit her palace, true enough. Some may have considered the Queen herself to be aloof, but Alice was no longer one of them. Not after having gotten to know her. She could be so warm and caring... But there was a darkness to her, as well. (She hadn't forgotten Mirana's reaction to the buttered fingers, after all... though she _was _trying to block out how that had made **her** feel: almost... excited, in a peculiar way.) Having met the Red Queen, Alice wasn't _surprised _to find that it evidently ran in the family to some degree. Unlike her sister, though, Mirana controlled it, rather then let it control her. She'd even taken vows specifically aimed to help her do so. There was still much about Underland that Alice didn't understand, but she half-suspected that they might even have invoked some kind of magic that would actually not **let** Mirana break those vows, no matter how much she might want to.

_"It goes against my vows to harm any living creature." _

"Does this not count as harm?" she asked aloud. There was still no one around to hear her - as far as she knew, the only other one awake was whoever was currently manning the wheel, and she was nowhere near that - but she knew that could change soon. _Why do you haunt me so? _she wondered, as if this time, somehow, she would actually receive an answer. As ever, there was only one.

_You could have stayed. _

No, she couldn't have. She knew that. There had been too many things she'd needed to take care of. But she had promised to return.

_Then why don't you? _

And how was she supposed to do that? The only method she knew of was by falling down a rabbit hole, and those were in short supply on a sailing vessel. Besides, those had been McTwisp's holes. Regular rabbits likely wouldn't do. She'd gone over all of this with herself multiple times.

It never helped. Despite everything, despite knowing how it simply couldn't be done, the craving always returned. She was always overcome by an almost desperate urge to lay eyes on the White Queen again, to see her smile, to touch her, to... Well, there she ran into trouble. She didn't know what else. She'd never experienced anything like this before, so she had nothing to compare it to. Saying she missed Mirana was like saying that the ocean was rather damp. No matter how confused she might have felt at the time, she'd still... liked it. Leaving hadn't cleared up that confusion in the slightest. And it should have. Distance _should _have helped her figure things out. Instead, all she felt was a small but growing certainty that she wasn't where she was supposed to be.

The creak of the deck behind her alerted her to the fact that she had company, and she swiftly composed herself. She wasn't so much concerned about propriety as she didn't wish to needlessly worry anyone. "Good morning, then, Miss Alice. You're up a mite early, if you don't mind my saying."

Even with her current mood, she had to smile. She'd tried to get the crew to use her first name from the moment she'd come aboard, but the best she'd been able to manage thus far was for them to stop calling her 'Miss Kingsleigh'. Carter, the second mate, had taken longer then most to come around. Not that he'd ever disliked her. No, it was more that he was a gentleman. She'd never been able to find out if Carter was the middle-aged man's first or last name, and no one she'd spoken with on ship or off seemed to know, either. It made no real difference, she supposed, except to help illustrate how little she knew about the crew in some respects, and vice versa. Carter was always unfailingly polite to her, but generally didn't seem to be the sort for personal conversations. "Not at all," she replied, not turning around. She felt more then saw him join her at the rail. "Good morning, Carter. What time is it, anyway?"

"A little after oh-four-thirty," he told her. "Nothing exciting ever happens this early in the morning, if you were wondering."

_Translation: Why aren't you still in bed like a sane person? _she thought with mild amusement. "No, I merely..." She shook her head. "Truthfully, I don't know what woke me up. I don't know why I couldn't fall back asleep. I just... don't know!" She sighed in frustration. "Something felt _wrong, _in some way, but as you can plainly see, nothing is amiss."

"And that would be why you're out here, brooding?"

She had to stifle another smile, lest he think she was having fun at his expense. She must have looked unhappy in the extreme to worry him enough to ask that. "No, that's something else, entirely."

She saw him nodding out of the corner of her eye, and it struck her how odd this conversation was, with both of them watching the inky black seas instead of looking at each other. Yet, it was right, somehow. "Some of the boys get that way, before a storm hits," he offered.

She considered that. The weather was perfectly normal, but in a way, that was how she felt. That something was coming, something big and unpleasant. She made a contemplative sound, but said nothing. For a long minute, they simply stood in comfortable silence, watching the sea. For a moment, she imagined that she could even see storm clouds brewing in the sky, but if there really had been something up there as energetic as what she thought she saw, they would already have been feeling it. No, that was just her imagination running away with her. If nothing else, Carter would have reacted, and he hadn't even noticed, despite looking in the same place. Perhaps she should have tried harder to get more sleep. "Carter," she began tentatively, then hesitated. She wasn't quite sure how to phrase what she wanted to ask, or even if she had the right to.

When the seconds kept ticking by and she didn't continue, he prompted, "Miss?"

"I..." Another hesitation. "Do you remember McCall?" she asked finally.

"Of course I do," he replied. "Fine lad."

Alice privately agreed with that. What she was more concerned with, however, was his behavior in the weeks leading up to his departure. Not being able to judge her own thoughts and actions from the outside, she couldn't say for certain, but from everything she'd seen, he'd seemed to have been going through something similar to what she was experiencing. As embarrassing as this conversation might be, she _needed _to know what this was. At least, she consoled herself, Carter wasn't likely to repeat it to anyone else. "Do you know why he left? I was never quite sure."

She turned her head a bit in time to catch him smile. "He left because he found what most sailors only ever dream of: a woman to replace the sea."

She could have sworn the deck lurched **FAR** more sharply beneath her then the tide could account for. "He... fell in love?" Her voice had dropped to a whisper again, but Carter heard her anyway.

"Aye, Miss, that he did." He eyed her shrewdly. "Is that the problem, then?"

"I... I-I don't..." She took a jerky step away from him, unaccountably alarmed. She wasn't... No, she couldn't have been... Unbidden, the memory of how she had told her mother that Hamish wasn't the right man for her resurfaced, and of how she hadn't been able to explain just what being 'right' to her had meant. She'd never really been drawn to any of the men she'd been introduced to, not at all... And really, how had she _never _picked up on that?

He laughed. "Oh, no, Miss Alice, I don't mean to imply that you're seeking such a woman yourself." His laughter abruptly trailed off as he got a good look at her - or as good as he was able in the dim light - and she swore inwardly. He _knew. _"Oh," he said, sounding surprised. "I see."

"Could you perhaps explain it to me, then?" she requested, looking down at the deck, cheeks burning with embarrassment. As much as she now wanted to flee this conversation, she knew she had to deal with this now, to make sure that the knowledge didn't go beyond the two of them. The crew had accepted her as much as they were able - more then she would have expected, frankly - but she knew that only went so far. Women loving other women... She'd never heard of such a thing, herself.

Perhaps she _had _been too sheltered, growing up.

He kept his voice low and soothing, and his movements nonthreatening, as if not wanting to scare her off. In other circumstances, she might have laughed at the idea that she would be scared by him, after everything else she'd been through. "Nothing wrong with that in my book, Miss. You love who you love. Nothing to be done about that. She must be something special, though, if you don't mind my saying."

Her lips pulled up into a smile almost against her will. "She is," she whispered, heart pounding as she dared to voice her recent revelation aloud for the first time. "She's... a queen."

"And what does she think of you?" The tone of the question said that he was more concerned about her, not wanting her to be hurt, then really interested in any kind of gossip, but the question itself still made her pause.

What _did _Mirana think of her?

Well, now that she knew what she was looking for, many of Mirana's words, actions, even looks took on entirely new meaning. She could only wish she'd understood then. Alice looked out at sea, smiling again. "She called me her champion," she said softly. "Said that she'd been waiting for me for... quite some time."

Carter, naturally, had no idea what she was talking about. The longing in her voice, however, was plain to hear. "You know, Miss, you don't actually _have _to accompany us on our trade missions."

That was stretching the truth to the breaking point, and they both knew it. If it was that easy, though... "I'm afraid she lives a bit... farther away then that," Alice said with a sigh. She looked up at where the phantom storm had seemed to be, reassured that she couldn't see anything unusual there any longer. Abruptly, she came to a decision. She had endured this too long already. "I hope Lord Ascot will not be overly disappointed by my departure." Despite that worry, she could only feel relief now that she knew what to do.

"You will be missed, lass, I won't lie to you about that," Carter told her. "But I dare say you're already being missed elsewhere, far more then even we'd ever be able to manage."

"I do fear that the rest of this voyage will be interminable, though," she admitted, and they shared a laugh... even though she suspected it would be the absolute truth. She resolved to enjoy her remaining time aboard the _Wonder _as best she could.

Because she knew that this would be the last time she ever set foot aboard her ever again.

She didn't even notice the ghostly light briefly flicker off in the distance, up in the sky. 

* * *

It was the strangest storm Underland had ever seen.

The most curious thing was that it made no noise. Storms that were all sound and fury, storms that only rained, storms that rained toads, storms that backed up if they'd missed someplace... Those were all normal enough, but they all made _some _kind of sound. What hovered over them now, like some malignant blight in the sky, was eerily quiet.

There also seemed to be a menacing green hue to the roiling clouds, as if they were more energy then water vapor. Some had suspected the exiled Red Queen at first, but eventually even they had been forced to concede that she'd never had the power to make something like _that._

Then there were the creatures. Sightings had been few initially, but were being reported with increasing frequency. Most seemed to be phantasms, frightening to look at but harmless. Others, though, seemed to be real enough, demonic-looking things that were fully capable of injuring or killing the populace. They had no uniform appearance, but all shared one major characteristic.

They were all dead.

As alarming as that may have been, it was most definitely a good thing as far as the Underlandians were concerned. While their former ruler might have long studied dominion over living things, her sister, the White Queen, practiced dominion over the dead. As such, she was able to keep her people safe from the unknown menace, though only with constant vigilance. And if things kept going the way they were, there would ultimately come a point where all her powers and skills wouldn't be enough.

Mirana stood on her balcony, looking up at the baleful sky. Whatever it was up there, it defied all of her attempts to divine its secrets. She was worried, of course, but couldn't let it show. She needed to be strong for her people, to present the image that everything was under control.

Control. Always, always control. That was critical. She didn't dare relax her guard for a moment, lest the madness gain hold of her. The current threat gave her something to focus on, true, but lack of sleep and the need to employ her abilities so often, combined with a near paranoia about where it would strike next, were all adding up to take their toll upon her. She needed some kind of relief. She needed... She needed...

Abruptly, she swished back inside her palace, gliding down corridor after corridor. One wouldn't think a white-haired woman with dark eyebrows, lips dark enough to look black (it was difficult to pin down the exact shade, as that would mean staring at her reflection more then she was comfortable with), wearing a white pouffy dress could go _anywhere _unnoticed, but she managed it. That it was so horribly early in the day helped.

She found herself in a position she'd been in more times then she could remember: standing in front of the armor of Marmoreal. Now, though, she had a face to attach to the long dreamed of champion. What Alice might have done against the nameless, faceless threat that stalked them now she couldn't have said, but she somehow just knew that everything would be better if Alice was just _there._.. with her.

For a moment, she experienced a burst of sympathy for her sister. Truly, being so alone was a special torture all its own. That was, of course, exactly why she had banished Iracebeth in such a fashion. She had vowed not to harm any living creature... but that didn't mean she couldn't make them wish that she would, even beg her to just kill them and get it over with. Which she would never do.

Ever.

She wondered if her sister still thought her weak because of her vows.

She sighed quietly - it was unseemly for a queen to react so - and trailed a hand down the front of the armor, memories of Alice banishing her dark thoughts with surprising ease.

She regretted not asking her champion not to stay herself. Alice _had _promised to return, and Mirana believed her implicitly, but she couldn't help but wish that she was there _now. _She regretted not having made her feelings clear when she had the chance. She regretted...

Well, she regretted a lot of things. Most of all, though, she regretted that they had been interrupted.

They had talked about a fair number of things after she had restored Alice to her proper size. She'd been afraid her champion would see the darkness within her and recoil, which was exactly the reason she didn't let much of anyone get too close to her, but... Well, she suspected Alice _had _caught glimpses of it, but she hadn't seemed scared in the slightest. Perhaps... intrigued?

She'd tested the waters carefully, casually mentioning that she was certain a woman as lovely as Alice had all manner of suitors waiting for her to return. Alice had blushed and looked down, charmingly embarrassed. She'd seemed more flustered by the compliment then the suggestion, and had admitted that many thought her to be a bit peculiar back at home, mostly because of her refusal to conform to what was deemed 'proper'. Mirana had subtly moved closer that it was obviously their loss, as individuality was hardly a bad thing. Alice had smiled wanly and countered that that was yet another of the differences between Underland and where she was from.

It had been tempting - oh, so very tempting - to suggest that perhaps she should just remain in Underland, then. But that would have been too soon, especially since Mirana was still trying to get her to be their - her - champion. Instead, she had simply remarked, "I do not believe you to be peculiar at all." Not in any kind of negative fashion, anyway. She thought Alice had caught her moving closer that time, but she hadn't said anything, so Mirana had continued, "And we're glad to have you here." A slight pause. "I'm glad that you're here."

Alice had looked understandably wary. "I've told you, I can't-"

Mirana had interrupted her, then. Doing so was horribly rude, but she hadn't quite been able to help it. She'd needed to make sure Alice understood what she _hadn't _been saying. "I'm still happy that you're here." She'd been close enough then to allow one of her hands to drift down from where she customarily had it in the air at her side and take hold of one of Alice's hands, giving it a squeeze.

Alice had blushed again, but not looked at all upset, smiling instead. "I do like being here with you more then much of the rest of this dream," she had replied.

Mirana hadn't known just what to say to shake her of the belief that everything she was experiencing was just a product of her own mind - and really, who knew? - so she'd simply smiled back at Alice and stepped closer, until bare inches separated them. She hadn't missed the way Alice's breathing had picked up in response, and she'd been slowly leaning forward when the knock at the door had come.

By the time she'd gotten rid of the page, Alice had retreated to the balcony, and Mirana had instinctively sensed that the moment was over. The subject had turned to more serious matters, then, and they hadn't really been alone again afterward.

And then she was gone.

"Hurry back, my champion," she whispered to the armor. "Your queen needs you." She allowed her hand to rest on it a moment more, then headed for her chambers.

If she was lucky, she might be able to steal a few hours sleep before the next attack.


	2. Chapter 2

Strike while the iron's hot and all that, right?

Title: Choices (2/?)  
Pairing: Alice/Mirana (White Queen)  
Rating: PG-13, for now  
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the recognizable characters. There will be some OCs, yes, but chances are they won't be main characters.  
Summary: It's the choices we make that make us who we are. 

* * *

Given that she was on the _Wonder _primarily to help set up their trade routes, Alice didn't exactly have much in the way of day to day responsibilities. She did help out where she could, of course, as she hadn't been raised to be lazy, but at the moment, there really was nothing for her to do. Given that she was trying to find a distraction from thinking about just how much longer it would be before they were in port again - and that port wasn't even in England - that was not especially helpful.

After enjoying a rather beautiful sunrise - another good thing to result from her curious bout of insomnia - she'd mainly tried to stay out of everyone's way. As she did, she couldn't help but wonder how events had been progressing in Underland over the past year. She was certain that Mirana was being a just and wise queen, but what about the others? The Hatter, the March Hare, Mallymkun, the Tweedles, Chessur... everyone. Part of her wished she'd gotten to examine the Oraculum a bit more closely, to perhaps get a clue as to their fates after she'd departed, but that only sent her thoughts off onto another tangent completely.

Was there such a thing as fate?

The Oraculum had said - well, suggested, anyway, as best she'd been able to tell - that she'd been destined to slay the Jabberwocky. Everyone she'd met there had likewise told her that it was her fate to do so. And, indeed, she had slain it. (Or, if one wanted to be technical, she'd held onto the Vorpal Sword while _it _had killed the Jabberwocky, but it had still "needed" to be her wielding it, evidently.)

And yet, despite being one of the ones who had believed the prophecy, it had been Mirana herself who had given her a choice, to be their champion or not. So she had chosen, making the only choice she would have been able to live with, after she'd realized that all her new friends were indeed real people, and that refusing might well have meant leaving them to their deaths. And having been the one doing the fighting, she knew full well that the battle's outcome had been far from certain. She'd come close to dying more times then was likely good for her sanity to dwell on.

The question, then, was whether or not the choice had even been real. Had she decided to face the Jabberwocky of her own free will, or had she always been meant to make that decision? She hadn't felt like she was being forced, but she couldn't quite overlook the fact that she had ended up doing _precisely _what it had been foretold that she would. Yet she also couldn't dismiss Mirana, who she _knew _had been sincere in her offer. She really would have let Alice walk away if she'd wanted to, despite what that might have meant for her kingdom. Or had she been able to make that offer because she believed that she already knew what Alice would ultimately choose? Which might not even have had anything to do with the Oraculum, but just that she knew Alice well enough to guess what she would do in the end. She had looked rather relieved when her champion had charged out of the castle, fully armored and ready for battle. But then, she'd also stated multiple times that Alice was _meant _to be their champion.

She was going to drive herself even madder then usual if she kept this up.

"You all right there, Miss Alice?" Surprised at the sudden question, she refocused on the outside world and turned from her position at the front of the ship to see that one of the sailors, Edward Hollingberry - commonly referred to as Ned - had paused near her, giving her an inquiring look. Tall and slender - and blessed with an unruly mop of brown hair that made her constantly want to send him to get a haircut, even after it just _had _been - he was the only person on the ship actually younger then she was. He had endured a fair amount of good-natured teasing from the rest of the crew because of that, she knew, but that had mostly tapered off of late. If anyone was suggesting that they would make a cute couple, they weren't doing so in her hearing. "You look like you're having thoughts entirely too serious for a day as lovely as this."

She smiled. "Only because I am, I fear." Perhaps a second opinion would help. "What do you think, Ned? Is free will real, or are we all consigned to fates that we can't escape?"

He blinked, obviously not having expected something _that _serious. "May I ask what brought that question on, Miss?"

She chuckled and shook her head. "Oh, you can certainly ask. I fear I couldn't quite answer you, though." Not without convincing him that she was utterly insane, at any rate.

"Well..." He shifted the length of rope he had coiled over his shoulder as he tried to come up with an answer. "Can't say I've ever given it much thought, meself. My mum always told me that the good Lord had a plan for all of us, though."

"But didn't He also give us free will?" she countered. She wasn't quite sure she wanted to bring religion into this - she wanted a more down to earth answer - but she had to admit, that did lend itself well to the subject matter at hand.

Ned looked increasingly uncomfortable, but was spared having to answer when someone shouted, "Oy! Lad! We be needin' that rope sometime within the fortnight!" He hurried in the direction of the shouter, and Alice, having nothing better to do, followed. "My apologies, gentlemen. I'm afraid I waylaid Ned with a question that's been bothering me of late."

"Think nothing of it, Miss Alice," Ben Moore told her. He was short and robust, of an indeterminate age. She thought his hair was also brown, but she'd never once seen him without his cap, so she couldn't say for certain. (In the past, such thoughts had often lead to the Hatter, which, of course, naturally ended with her thinking about Mirana.) Standing with him were Owen and Paul Thomas, two brothers who looked similar enough to each other that they could have been twins, had they not been born three years apart. They were of a moderate height with dusky red hair, which set them apart from the tall, stout - and older - Carter, who also bore a bushy red beard. They weren't quite as nice to look at as the twins back home (and really, Alice, watching them swim naked? Just _how many _more times would you have needed to do that before you realized it wasn't just for blackmail material?), nor as amusing as the Tweedles, but she did find them perfectly likable on their own merits. "I am curious as to what would be so distractin', though."

"We were debating the subject of fate versus free will." She smiled. "Would you care to venture forth an opinion?"

"Never believed in fate, meself," Owen volunteered. "I make me own decisions. Always have."

"But how can you know you weren't just following a path that had been laid out for you some time ago, which you just didn't know about?" she asked.

"It'd be easy enough to say that after something's come to pass, Miss," Paul said. He was a bit quieter then his little brother, but not so much that you couldn't hear him. "But in the before, when you're actually makin' the decision, you know it's up to you. The future's not set, after all. If you want fate, you have to make it yourself."

Alice wanted very much to believe that, but her memories of the Oraculum made that difficult. The frustrating thing was, she couldn't even tell them about that.

A loud crack of thunder split the air, and she flinched and ducked instinctively. She was amazed to find that in the space of, literally, a few seconds, the blue sky had vanished behind low hanging clouds. "How peculiar," she commented as she straightened up. Something - an odd trick of the light or something in the air, perhaps - seemed to be giving the clouds an odd greenish tint.

"Never seen nothing like _that _before," one of the Thomas brothers said, though she couldn't have said which one. Whichever one it was, a quick look at the rest of the group told her that he wasn't alone in that sentiment. She decided to leave them to their task - whatever it was - politely excusing herself before heading back to the bow of the ship.

She wasn't alone in doing so, as she was soon joined by Carter. "You're up a mite early, if you don't mind my saying," she told him with a smile.

He chuckled. "As if I could sleep through that racket." He shook his head. "Never laid eyes on the likes of that up there, either."

Well, there went any hope Alice might have held for easy answers. If Carter had never seen such a thing before, she was certain no one aboard had. And speaking of seeing things... "Um, Carter?" She gestured out to sea. "How long has _that _been there?"

He obediently looked in the indicated direction. "What's whe- _Bless me thrice!_" Which told her that she wasn't imagining things.

There really was a pirate ship closing on them.

At least, it seemed like there was. There was something... wrong with it, though. It seemed to flicker, somehow, as if it wasn't entirely there. The tiny forms she could see scurrying about onboard it were nearly transparent. While she had heard legends about ghost ships before, she didn't think that was what this was. Apart from not seeming able to decide whether or not it existed, the ship was otherwise in perfect condition.

As if determined to prove her wrong, there was a tiny blur of movement between the two ships, and when she followed it, she saw that what certainly seemed to be a cannonball was flying away from the _Wonder_, as if it had gone right through the ship without stopping. A quick look down confirmed that there were no fresh holes in the boat.

It was impossible to say which crew was more confounded by this.

The rest of the _Wonder_'s crew had begun noticing the other vessel by now, and urgent commands were being bellowed from every which way. She wasn't sure she could follow it, but they didn't seem to be confusing each other, which she supposed was the important part. Someone - the captain, she guessed - ordered an evasive course, but the pirates seemed to be driven by a wind that no one else could feel, and drew up alongside them in short order.

That was when things started getting quite peculiar, indeed.

Given how much larger both the pirate ship and its crew were compared to the _Wonder_, it seemed unlikely in the extreme that they would be able to successfully repel any boarders. However, while their efforts did prove utterly futile, it wasn't due to any lack of skill on their part, but because the pirates that swung onto their ship passed right through everyone they encountered.

The look of surprise on the face of the first pirate to do so was rather comical, but Alice wasn't laughing. There was something about the entire affair that felt horribly wrong, more so then even ghost pirates could account for, but she couldn't quite put her finger on what. The ominous sky certainly wasn't helping matters at all, that was for certain.

It took several seconds for both crews to realize that hand to hand combat wasn't quite working, as no one was really standing still and letting someone from the other side slash at them with a sword. The pirates looked both surprised and frustrated, and their mouths moved soundlessly, as if they were speaking, yet they made no sound at all that anyone could hear. Still, despite all evidence telling her that they were harmless, Alice couldn't help but react when she saw one of them swinging his sword at Carter's head.

That was when she made a mistake.

Even as she reached out to shove the pirate away, she knew she was being foolish. The sword wouldn't even touch him - she'd seen several examples of pirate swords passing through both people and the ship (though that didn't exactly clear up how they were able to stand on the deck without falling through) - and all she was going to accomplish was falling flat on her face.

She was mostly correct.

What actually happened was that, for just one moment, she made contact with the pirate's arm and shoulder. Frayed cloth and the warmth of a flesh and blood person surprised her almost as much as the fact that she did manage to begin changing his course... And then it was gone, and she was falling through him to crash painfully to the deck.

Unfortunately, this didn't go unnoticed.

Even as she was trying to figure out what had just happened, the pirates seemed to be chattering to each other excitedly. She felt strange, as if she could _almost _hear what they were saying, and she wondered if she'd struck her head. What had that been, exactly? Some lingering after effect of the Jabberwocky's blood? It was the only thing she could think of that would set her apart from the rest of the crew. She felt an odd flash of resentment for the creature, as if it had somehow arranged this just to strike back at her for killing it, which was beyond absurd. She _must _have hit her head. Dimly, she heard someone calling her name, and looked up in time to see something shadowy flying towards her. Was that a net? Why would-

_PAIN! _She lost track of the thought, and everything else, as the net wrapped itself around her. It felt like she'd just been struck by lightning, fire coursing through her veins as she thrashed helplessly. She thought she heard someone scream. It might even have been herself.

Everything went black. 

* * *

_When she opened her eyes, she was surrounded by white._

Alice looked around in confusion. Where had everyone gone? The crew, the pirates... Indeed, where was the **ocean**? It had been a while since she'd been on dry land, but the lack of gentle rocking was quite telling. And given that she'd been rendered unconscious somehow by pirates, waking to find herself on a large, incredibly soft white bed seemed incredibly unlikely. None of this made any sense. In fact, it made so little sense that it could only be...

Wonderland?

_She was dreaming, then. Well, that was preferable to what she would no doubt find waiting for her when she awoke, but it wouldn't last. She was tempted to just lay back on the bed and rest, but for all she knew, falling asleep here would mean waking up in the real world. With some regret, she slid off the bed and got to her feet, marveling that she felt just fine. Surely a jolt such as the one she'd just taken should have translated into her dreams?_

She was distracted from her musings by the sight of the chamber within which she found herself. Everything, from the high ceiling to the thickly carpeted floor, was solid white. There was no one else present, but the size and grandeur of the room told her exactly where she was.

Mirana's bedroom.

After taking a moment to adjust to that, she shook her head. Really, if she was going to go to all the trouble of dreaming herself to Marmoreal, it seemed that the least the queen could do was be there to greet her. Well, as the old saying went, 'If the mountain will not come to Mohammad, Mohammad will go to the mountain'. She took another moment to soak in the peaceful atmosphere of the room, knowing that would be something in short supply once she woke up, then walked to the door and opened it.

The hall was empty, and she honestly wasn't sure whether or not that should have surprised her. She wandered aimlessly, not entirely sure where she was going. Where would Mirana be? The throne room, perhaps? Maybe the kitchen? Truthfully, she could have been anywhere _on the grounds. And, unhelpfully, since she'd never been to Mirana's bedroom before, she had no idea where she was now in relation to the rest of the palace. She could be wandering around for ages before she found something she recognized, and she doubted she had that much time. Reasoning that she had seen enough of the outside of the palace that she could find her way to the front entrance from there, she began seeking a more outward path._

Initially, that didn't seem to help much, as she was so utterly lost that she wasn't sure which direction would lead toward the outside of the palace, and which would lead her deeper into it. Eventually, though, she passed a statue that she thought she recognized, and hung a left. Yes, she'd definitely seen that archway before. Which meant that... Yes! There was their balcony. Well, not really, as she didn't live there, and a lot more people then just her and Mirana used it, but part of her still thought of it as 'theirs'.

She was momentarily distracted by the overcast sky, full of clouds tinted a sickly green. It looked just like the sky when they were attacked, and she wondered why she'd dreamed that up.

She forgot all about it when she realized that, standing near the telescope, looking up at it as well, was Mirana herself.

For a second, she was simply frozen in place. She'd forgotten - or somehow made herself forget - exactly **how** beautiful the White Queen was. And now that she openly acknowledged the effect that beauty had on her... Her mouth felt dry. Shaking it off as best she could, she softly called, "Mirana?"

No answer. Deciding she'd been too quiet, she forced herself to move closer while raising her voice. "Mirana!" Still nothing. Was she being too informal? "Your highness?" she tried.

Again, there was no response.

She'd reached the queen's side by then, and waved a hand in front of her face. Mirana didn't even blink. Now that she was getting a good look at her, Alice could see that Mirana's lips were moving soundlessly as she stared up at the sky. "Oh, no," Alice muttered. "No, no, no." It would be just her luck if this was some kind of nightmare where she could see Mirana, but not hear, touch, or speak with her. Maybe the pirates had bled through to her dreaming mind, after all. She reached out to touch Mirana's arm, and was relieved to find her reassuringly solid. Mirana didn't seem to notice that, either, obviously caught up in... whatever it was that she was doing.

There was a green flare from above, and Alice looked up to find what seemed to be a tendril of clouds winding its way downward. Mirana raised her right hand, palm up as if pushing against something, and her countenance took on a more stern appearance. Had her voice been audible, Alice was certain it would have been raised, as well.

And she **was** pushing against something, Alice realized. Whatever it was in the sky, the White Queen was visibly straining to keep it at bay. She was distressed to see that Mirana seemed to be having some difficulty. "How can I help?" she asked reflexively, but that went unheard, as well. Lacking any better idea what to do, she embraced the queen from behind - and this was **her** dream, so who cared how many rules of protocol that might be breaking? - resting her arms over Mirana's stomach, and whispered into her ear, "You are not alone, my queen. Not ever." She placed a tender kiss on Mirana's neck...

...and felt a jolt entirely dissimilar from when she'd been hit by the net. The world briefly went gray, but all she cared about was that Mirana straightened up, **commanding** whatever it was in the sky to be gone so clearly that Alice didn't even need to be able to hear her to know it. The tendril dispersed, the green clouds darkening to an almost black.

Or was color leeching out of everything? No... no! I don't want to wake up, yet! _It seemed that she was being given no choice in the matter, though. She tightened her grip on Mirana, silently trying to convey everything she was feeling, but all too soon the body in her grasp became wispy and insubstantial, and was gone. _

Mirana leaned against the railing, fatigued. As she'd feared, the unseen enemy had finally gathered its force for one all-out strike. She had countered it as best she was able, but it had just kept coming. As time went by, inevitably she'd begun to falter. And then...

Then...

Then she'd been surrounded by an incredible warmth, suffused by the knowledge that she did not stand alone, and flooded by a strength that was at once both foreign and incredibly familiar. Power had leapt unbidden to her command, and she had pushed back at the enemy with everything she had.

And it had fallen back. She could sense it. Usually the best she could do was to push it back to where it had been before the latest attack, but now, for the first time since the conflict had begun, she'd actually gained ground. How long the respite would last, she had no idea, but she would enjoy it while it did.

She turned to head back inside, and promptly tripped.

It was fortunate, she decided, that no one else was around to witness her being less then graceful. She struggled briefly to get up, before realizing that her feet were tangled in something, which was what had made her fall in the first place. After disentangling herself and standing back up, retrieved the item from the floor. After a brief inspection, she determined that it was a coat of some kind, light blue in color. She sniffed it, and a smile slowly spread across her face.

Of course. She should have known. Who else would have come to her aid, precisely when she needed it most?

She folded up the garment carefully, carrying it back inside with her. That there was no logical explanation for its presence bothered her not in the slightest. She would keep it safe, until its owner came to claim it.

However long that might be. 

* * *

Alice groaned quietly as she woke up. A lingering pain throughout her entire body, mixed with a (blessedly fading) nausea, told her that she was definitely awake this time. The swaying of the floor underneath her said she was definitely on a ship, and the rough, unfamiliar voices she could just hear told her it was not the right one.

_Well... lovely. _

She found she was still tangled up in that hateful net, though it didn't seem to be doing anything to her now. Well, nothing beyond keeping her prisoner, at any rate. Was it some kind of magic net, she wondered, meant to take prisoners back into whatever ghost world the pirates had come from? Why had they used it on her? Why had it worked? Because she'd briefly come into contact with that pirate back on the _Wonder_? Why had _that _even happened? _Had _it been because of the Jabberwocky's blood? How could that still be a factor after a year?

And where on earth was her coat?

Well, she had a lot of questions, and only one way to get any answers. She carefully opened her eyes ever-so-slightly. There was almost no light, and as best she could tell, no one else around. She risked opening her eyes wider, and found that she'd been thrown into what must have been the pirate ship's hold. She began fumbling at the net, trying to figure out where the top was. Once that was accomplished, she set to work on getting it open. She had no idea how long it would take for someone to come check on her, and she wanted to be loose before that happened.

_And then what? _

She pushed aside that unhelpful thought. Right now, she had to focus on the present. She really needed to know where she was before she could figure out where she was going to go once she escaped from the pirates.

Of course, all that was dependent upon her actually escaping first.

Eventually, she managed to wriggle free of the net, relishing being able to stand unhindered. She could just see a set of stairs illuminated by the light spilling through the edges around a door that she knew must have lead to the main deck. She carefully made her way over, not wishing to trip over something and injure herself, or make some kind of noise that would alert them to the fact that she was awake and free. Once she'd safely reached them, she crept up them as silently as she was able, then pressed her ear against the door.

She could still barely hear them, but she could make out enough words to realize that she was being discussed. They'd come specifically for her, it seemed, though to her frustration, none of them said anything about how they'd known where to find her. Someone wanted her out of the way of... something... because she could supposedly interfere with that something to some degree, and...

She sighed noiselessly. Really, were details too much to ask for? They could have been talking about anything! _Who _wanted her out of the way? The Red Queen? Given that her head was still attached to her neck, that seemed unlikely. And why were their voices getting louder?

It took her still foggy head a moment to get it.

They were heading her way! She had exactly five seconds in which to think of a course of action, and she hadn't quite succeeded when the door began opening.

So, impulsively, she punched the first pirate she saw in the face.

Even as he fell, she ducked under the reach of a second, grabbed the sword from the first, and ran. She was aware of shouting behind her, which was taken up by other voices all over the ship, but she was too busy trying to figure out where, exactly, she was going. She ended up running to the bow of the ship, surrounded by a semi-circle of unwashed pirates. She experienced a flash of déjà vu, and mentally substituted them for a pack of red playing card men.

Unfortunately, this time she knew the Bandersnatch wouldn't be coming to her aid.

"What _is _the meaning of all this commotion?" a more cultured voice asked - or, at least, more cultured in comparison, which may not have been the biggest challenge in the world. The pirates halted and straightened up, making her suspect that was their captain. She took the opportunity to look around, surprised to find that they were approaching an island she'd never seen before. A tropical island, if the heat and humidity in the air were any indication, and she again wondered just where they'd taken her.

"Sorry, Cap'n," one of them said. She couldn't tell which one it had been. One near the back that she couldn't see, she thought. "She's a bit more... feisty... then expected."

"Indeed." The crowd parted, showing her a tall man with long black hair that was easily as curly as her own - not something most men she was familiar with would allow - wearing a large feathered hat, a long red coat, and knee breeches. "My apologies, Miss Kingsleigh. I'm afraid my men aren't used to dealing with a lady of your stature." He stood with his hands behind his back, as if he were the perfect gentleman.

She was not fooled. "How do you know my name?" she asked suspiciously. "And who are you?"

He inclined his head. "How terribly rude of me. I am Captain James-"

"Captain Codfish!" another, more youthful voice interjected. Before Alice could figure out where the shout had come from, something - someone? - had grasped her around the midsection, and she was suddenly airborne.

A commotion that put the previous one to shame broke out on the deck of the pirate ship, but Alice's rescuer - little more then a boy, she now saw - merely laughed. "Don't worry, Miss, I've got you!"

"You've got me," Alice agreed, staring down at the ocean below them in shock. "But who's got you?"

He merely laughed again as he rapidly whisked her toward the island, an enraged cry of "_**PAAAAAAAAAAAAANNN!**_" echoing out over the water in their wake. 

* * *

I suppose now is as good a time as any to mention that this will be a multi-fandom crossover? *wanders off, whistling innocently*


	3. Chapter 3

Moving right along...

Title: Choices (3/?)  
Pairing: Alice/Mirana (White Queen)  
Rating: PG-13, for now  
Disclaimer: If you recognize them, chances are they aren't mine.  
Summary: It's the choices we make that make us who we are. 

* * *

Alice didn't quite manage to relax again until she'd been set on solid ground. A flying boy was hardly the strangest thing she'd ever seen, but wherever she was now, it _wasn't _Underland, which meant there needed to be some kind of explanation. And she rather wanted to know what it was.

"Who are you?" she demanded once her feet were safely on one of the many dirt paths that led through the jungle, the massive foliage shielding them from view. She let her borrowed sword fall to the ground, reasonably certain that the boy hadn't saved her just to kill her himself. "Who were those pirates? What did they want with me? How did you-?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" he interrupted, laughing. She was a bit too tense to appreciate any humor that might be in the situation. "One question at a time! My name's Peter. Peter Pan. Welcome to Neverland!"

"Neverland," she repeated slowly, unable to completely hide her disappointment. Not that she hadn't already known she wasn't in Underland, but really, if she was going to be dragged into another world, why _couldn't _it have been that one? "All right. But... the pirates?"

This prompted a rather lengthy explanation of what Neverland was... which somehow managed to clear up absolutely nothing. That the inhabitants seemed to cease aging upon arrival was interesting, that most of them seemed to be boys was curious, that the 'Lost Boys' often came into conflict with the pirates - though they had a more hard to define relationship with a tribe of natives (who, it seemed, weren't technically _native _to Neverland at all) - was potentially helpful, that the 'Lost Boys' got to Neverland because fairies _took _them was borderline alarming, that the fairies lived in a place called _Pixie _Hollow was odd... and none of it actually _answered _her question.

She knew what the fairies looked like now, because a number of them had descended to investigate the island's newest arrival. "This is all very interesting," she began, striving for patience. Fortunately, Peter seemed to realize he'd wandered a bit off track.

"As for the pirates, nobody really knows how they came to be here," he said with a negligent shrug. "They mainly seem concerned with finding treasure and trying to kill us. After Hook died, I used his boat to take everyone back to London. I didn't have any use for it after that, so I just... left it in the cove. I didn't even notice when they reclaimed it until it was gone. But now I can have fun fighting them again!"

Her heart leapt. "You could take me to London?" Her thoughts were essentially: Step 1 - go to London, Step 2 - find rabbit hole, Step 3 - go to Mirana. Still, though, she knew she couldn't just go until she found out why the pirates had come after her, and who had sent them. She didn't want to bring unnecessary trouble down on the heads of the people of Underland, after all. Besides, when she got to Marmoreal, she didn't want to have to deal with any distractions; she wanted to focus all of her attention on Mirana. She paused as she fully processed what he'd just said. "He _died_? And it didn't seem at all strange to you that he's back, now?" Honestly, what was wrong with this boy? His mortal enemy was back from the dead and he didn't _care_?

Peter shrugged again. "What's strange?" he asked, and she had to admit, that was a fair point. Living in a place such as this Neverland, or Underland, or any such place, one's definition of 'strange' would naturally have to be adjusted. Still, even so...

"It does seem to be... cheating, though," she said, hoping that if she appealed to his love of games, she might be able to get through to him. "And why kidnap me? I'd never even heard of him, or Neverland, before now."

He frowned, and she mentally cheered. "That's true. Bad form, Hook!" Without warning, he took to the air.

It was Alice's turn to frown, as she was sure this was not going to lead to anything helpful. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to find out what he's up to!" Peter declared, assuming a curious posture with his hands on his hips, legs spread wide, and head thrown back as he... crowed? "Come on, Tink!" One of the fairies zoomed up to meet him, presumably the 'Tink' in question.

"What about me?" she yelled up at him as he zipped away.

"No time to teach you to fly right now!" he called back. "We'll do that when I get back!" Then he was gone.

"I meant, what am I supposed to do, now?" she muttered to herself - and, she supposed, to the fairies that were still buzzing about her. She wasn't feeling terribly disposed to just stand around idle while a boy who refused to grow up went to go investigate on her behalf, particularly since she had yet to see him display any understanding of the word 'subtlety'. And...

Wait.

_Teach me to fly? _

She hadn't thought that was something one could learn. One of the fairies settled on her shoulder, and she turned to look at it. "What did he mean by that?"

The fairy giggled - or she seemed to, anyway; if they could speak, it was so high pitched that Alice couldn't hear it - and launched from her shoulder, circling her and shaking off a tremendous amount of golden dust. Alice, for her part, simply stared in confusion. She had no idea if this was supposed to be an answer, or if the fairy was just feeling mischievous. Once she was evidently satisfied with the amount of dust she'd released, she stopped and hovered in front of Alice's face. She was an adorable little thing, Alice decided once she finally got a good look at her, with hair a curious bright purple cut into a bob just below her ears. She put on a wide, happy smile, pointed at it, then pointed at Alice.

Well, she was trying to help, Alice had to admit that. So... what? She needed to smile? Or was it simpler then that? Really, it probably had to be. She knew all too well from first hand experience how smiles could be used to cover one's true feelings. Of course, she'd also seen smiles that seemed to reach down into the core of a person, showing how truly joyful they felt. She could still remember that smile that Mirana had favored her with on their first meeting, when she was believed that Alice was to be her champion. Her eyes so wide and hopeful...

Something bumped into her head, and she looked up to see that she'd floated right up into a tree branch. _Wait... floated? _Her eyes widened in surprise, and she abruptly dropped back to the ground, landing in a heap.

This sent the fairies into fits of giggles, and she huffed quietly as she climbed back to her feet, trying not to notice how dirty and torn her clothing had gotten over the past few hours. Well, at least she was providing her new friends with some amusement. The purple-haired one who'd dusted her dropped down in front of her face again, and repeated her smiling gesture. "Right, happy thoughts. I get it," Alice said. At least she wouldn't have trouble with that, now that she knew what was needed.

Truthfully, she usually had more problems in _avoiding _thinking about Mirana.

She'd never really had the opportunity to indulge herself in thinking about the White Queen - and her other friends from Underland, for that matter - without restriction, before. Now, though... Well, she was airborne practically before she knew it. The fairies buzzed about her excitedly, and she had to smile at their enthusiasm. It took a bit of trial and error to work out the mechanics of actual flight, but they were all too happy to help her however they could, treating the whole thing as some grand game.

She couldn't help but laugh as they flitted through the air, some of them playing what looked like a game of tag, occasionally using her as a shield. (She guessed she was a bit too big to be eligible to play, and for a moment, part of her longed for a sip of pishalver.) She had no intention of staying herself, but she was beginning to understand why Neverland might be so appealing to children. She quickly lost track of time, flying through the air and dodging branches, so she was rather surprised when one of her turns showed her Peter coming back into view.

He seemed equally surprised, albeit for a different reason. "Flying already? You're a fast learner!" He beamed at her, no doubt thinking of all the games they would now be able to play.

He might not have been, of course, but she didn't feel like taking chances. As she spun lazily in the air - not quite able to get rid of her smile, because, really, she _was _flying - she asked, "And what did you learn?"

He settled onto a tree branch. "I listened to them for a while, but not a single one of them said anything about how or why Hook came back. I wanted to go make them tell me, but Tink wouldn't let me." Well, at least the fairy had some sense... and there was something she never thought she'd hear herself thinking. "They did mention you, though. Evidently some mistress of something or other sent them after you, because someone named Ill-something..."

"Ilosovic Stayne?" Alice's heart sank, and the rest of her quickly began to follow. Realizing what was happening, she turned her thoughts back to Mirana as best she could, making a curious swimming motion as she lunged forward to grab onto a branch of a tree near Peter's, deciding he had the right idea for this conversation. She let out a quiet sigh of relief when she was centered on it.

Peter hadn't seemed to have noticed any difficulties on her part. "That was it!" he exclaimed with a snap of his fingers. "Because he told her that you'd likely get in the way of whatever she had planned." He laughed. "She certainly won't be happy with them for letting you get away."

She didn't understand. How could Ilosovic Stayne be involved in what was going on? He had no magical powers whatsoever. "Did they... mention anything about a Red Queen, or anyone named Iracebeth?"

His face screwed up in confusion, and she felt a knot inside of her begin to relax. "Anyone named _what_?"

She assumed that meant 'no'. While she was glad to know that the Red Queen wasn't after her again - given everything that had happened to her because of Alice, Iracebeth would no doubt have been out for blood - Alice was left completely in the dark as to who was. "And just what does whoever it is have planned?" she wondered aloud.

"All they said about that was that they had to be at the Black Castle at sunset." He shook his head in disgust. "I forgot how _boring _pirates can be when you aren't fighting them."

She vaguely recalled him mentioning a Black Castle when he'd been explaining about the time - or a time, anyway - that Hook had captured Tiger Lily. "Then I shall have to pursue them," she decided. There was really nothing else for it.

"Take on an entire pirate crew by yourself? Are you mad?" he asked, though he seemed more intrigued then alarmed by the idea.

She allowed herself an impish grin. "All the best people are, you know."

He laughed, taking to the air again and pirouetting. "You didn't seem to be doing terribly well before," he reminded her.

She nodded, conceding the point. "True. But I don't intend to fight them. I intend to follow them and learn who it is who sent them. After all, if whoever it was sent people after me once, she may well do so again."

"Then I'll have to teach you how to fight!" Peter declared, abruptly zipping off into the jungle. Before she could ask any of the fairies if she was supposed to follow him or not, he was back, the sword she'd dropped when they'd first touched down on the Neversoil in his hand. He handed it to her, then drew his own. "After that, you can tell us a story!"

She looked up at the sky, trying to figure out how long they had until sunset. The jungle canopy made it hard to get a good look at the sky, but since she had fragmented memories of more then one moon - indeed, possibly more then one _sun _- that was useless. His enthusiasm about the prospect of a good story drove home his relative physical and emotional youth yet again, but she was willing to accept that, in however long he'd been in Neverland - he hadn't been able to tell her during his explanation, honestly seeming to have no idea - he'd picked up enough about sword fighting to at least give her a few tips. She wouldn't have an enchanted blade to help her this time, after all.

And she had just the story to tell him, too.

"We'd best start now, then," she decided. "The one I have in mind may take some time to tell properly."

"All right, then." Scarcely had he finished speaking before he lunged forward, bringing his sword down in an arc that she just managed to intercept with her own. He smiled and, somewhat belatedly, added, "En garde."

She felt her own lips twitch into an answering smile. "Thank you for the warning." 

* * *

Several hours later, Alice sat slumped at the base of a tree, tired and sweaty. Her purple-haired fairy friend had helpfully fetched her half a coconut shell filled with water, and she had downed half of it in one gulp. She slowly sipped the rest, trying to ignore the burning in her arms. She would have loved to take a bath, but didn't know how much time she had left before sunset, and she did still have to uphold her part of the bargain.

'Slow' and 'patient' didn't exactly seem to be words that Peter was overly familiar with, so she supposed that demonstrating different moves, deflections, and attacks must have been difficult for him in the extreme. He'd even taken time to teach her some aerial combat, though since pixie dust evidently wore off, she wasn't sure how much good that would do her once she left Neverland. Still, one never knew, and he'd been able to make it into a game enough to keep from getting bored.

It really was amazing what a person could get used to. After a while, it had seemed perfectly natural to hover in the air, talking or practicing. That was one aspect of Neverland that she knew she would definitely miss.

Still, she had made a promise, and Peter was waiting patiently, sitting near another tree, watching her closely. The fairies had likewise settled down on any available surface - several were on her, in fact, with the purple-haired one having assumed her favorite position on Alice's shoulder - and were waiting. Finishing her water, she set the empty shell down, only mildly surprised when it was abruptly whisked away. "Once, many years ago, there was a young girl named Alice," she began, pausing when her helper buzzed in front of her face, pointing at her. She smiled. "Yes, me."

"Petunia!" Peter chastised, finally giving the fairy a name. Petunia drooped, but Alice waved it off. "It's all right," she assured them.

Once a happier Petunia had returned to her shoulder, Alice continued. "Well, one day young Alice saw the most peculiar thing she'd ever seen in her young life: a rabbit wearing a waistcoat, looking at a pocket watch! Well, Alice didn't have any idea what to make of that, so she followed it, until she fell down a rabbit hole!" She smiled at the reaction that prompted, then continued. "Well, this was no ordinary rabbit hole, you understand. It kept going down, and down..." She made an effort to try and describe the utter strangeness of that journey, but ultimately gave up. Instead, she moved on to the room with the locked doors, the pishalver, and the upelkuchen. Her audience seemed fascinated by the idea of a potion that could make you shrink and a cake that could make you grow, but she had a _**lot **_of ground to cover, so she moved right along to cover everything else that had happened during that first visit that she could remember.

Truthfully, that wasn't all that much, so she quickly moved on before anyone could get upset. "Now, many years passed, and Alice allowed herself to become convinced that her Wonderland was just a dream," she continued. She had been calling it Underland whenever she used the name during her story, but Peter, as she had the first time, heard it as Wonderland. And, she had agreed, it certainly was that. "After her father had died, it was just too hard for her to hold on to her innocence. She forgot much of what had happened, and even forgot who she really was. But on the day when she was nearly forced into agreeing to marry a dull and boring man, why, what should she see but a rabbit in a waistcoat?" A flutter of excitement passed through the fairies. "Yes, the same white rabbit had come to lead her back to Wonderland. But this time, they had a more urgent need of her presence. For you see, just as Alice had changed, so too had Wonderland.

"A darkness had settled over the land, after the Red Queen had taken power. She was a horrid woman, prone to having people beheaded over the slightest offenses. Even the Red King wasn't spared. The people wanted to rebel against her, but the Red Queen commanded the fierce Jabberwocky, a massive dragon-creature that could breathe purple lightning. She also commanded other creatures, such as the Jubjub Bird and the Bandersnatch, but it was the Jabberwocky that kept her in power. But it had been foretold that Alice would slay the Jabberwocky, and on the Frabjous Day and restore the White Queen to power. Now, naturally, this utterly horrified Alice, who had never slain anything in her life. Before she could convince them that they'd gotten the wrong Alice, they were ambushed by the Bandersnatch and a group of playing-card soldiers led by the Knave of Hearts. Alice, don't forget, had been shrunk by the pishalver, and so was in no state to fight. She managed to escape and flee into the woods." Admittedly, she was skipping a few things, but they'd be there all day if she went into _every _detail.

She did tell them about encountering Chessur, the Cheshire Cat. As she'd expected, they were utterly enthralled by the very idea of him. She probably could have made the rest of the story about him, and they wouldn't have objected. But she didn't know enough about him, so she just stuck with her recitation of the events of her second trip to Underland.

She went on to describe meeting the Mad Hatter and the March Hare, who, along with the Dormouse - and yes, Alice told them, she did still have the Bandersnatch's eye - were having a tea party while waiting for her. "The Hatter, you see, had promised to kill time until her return, and Time had gotten fed up with the whole thing and stopped altogether. But now that Alice was back, it resumed, delighting the March Hare that his watch was ticking again." She could just hear the tinkling of fairy laughter. She explained how they were found by the Knave again, and how a now even smaller Alice again evaded capture.

"But Alice knew enough about the Red Queen by then to guess what would happen to the Hatter and the others, so instead of heading to the White Queen, she made the bloodhound, Bayard, take her to the Red Queen's palace. For Alice had grown tired of being grown, shrunk, ordered around, being told she was the right Alice, being told she wasn't, and pursued. She decided to take control of her own destiny and rescue her friends."

She wasn't sure how much she should edit what she'd encountered at Salazen Grum. She was, after all, talking to a young boy and a group of fairies. On the other hand, none of them seemed very squeamish. And hadn't Peter cut off Hook's hand and fed it to a crocodile? Mentally shrugging, she told them about the moat full of floating heads that she'd had to cross in order to reach the palace, eliciting a mostly silent disgusted reaction, but no horror. Encouraged that she likely wouldn't be causing any nightmares, she pressed on.

She told them about meeting the Red Queen, and the Hatter's clever plan to buy more time. She skipped over the Knave's poor attempts as seducing her as much as she could get away with, both out of disgust and knowing that her audience wasn't much interested in that kind of story. "And once Alice had given the Hatter his hat back - because what is a Hatter without a hat? - she headed to the den of the Bandersnatch. Having gotten the eye from the Dormouse, she gave it back to the Bandersnatch, befriending it. Goodness knows it had likely not received much kindness or compassion from the Red Queen or her followers. In return, it gave her the key to the chest in which the Vorpal Sword was locked."

She smiled. "Now, the Vorpal is a _special _sword, and was the only blade capable of slaying the Jabberwocky. Alice then attempted to free the Hatter, but the Knave and a group of the playing-card soldiers interrupted, and Alice's true identity was revealed. Alice was forced to flee, the Hatter doing his best to distract St- the Knave and the soldiers, but to no avail. Alice was cornered in the courtyard, but just when all seemed lost, in to rescue her charged her new friend, the Bandersnatch." Her audience cheered. "So, as much as she hated to leave her friends behind, Alice knew she had no other choice but to get the Vorpal Sword to the White Queen."

She absently reached back to grab hold of a root that was sticking up near her to keep from floating up into the air. Evidently, the pixie dust hadn't quite worn off, yet.

"The White Queen was easily the most beautiful woman Alice had ever seen, with flowing white hair and warm brown eyes. When she had ruled, Wonderland had been a place of peace and beauty, and now that she'd met her, Alice knew why. The Queen was naturally very happy to see Alice, believing her champion had at long last arrived. She was kind enough to brew up some pishalver, restoring Alice to her proper height." And they did **NOT** need to know what ingredients Mirana had used, _that _she was certain of. "Alice still didn't want to slay anything, not believing herself capable, but it was harder for her to resist the White Queen."

_Well, that would be one way of putting it, _her mind whispered, amused, and she just managed not to smile.

"After another talk with Absolem - during which she became convinced that no, this was not just some fantastical dream-" Her audience reacted with amusement. "-Alice knew that she couldn't let her friends charge into battle without her. She wasn't convinced that she would win - she decided to act not because of any prophecy, but because of her own choices - but she knew she had to try. The White Queen - indeed, all of Underland - was counting on her, and if it was within her power, she would not let them down.

"The Queen had been preparing to go into battle without her, as, despite her belief in the prophecy, she would never force Alice to go to battle against her will. Still, the look of happiness and relief on the White Queen's face when Alice rode out of the castle on the Bandersnatch, fully armored and clutching the Vorpal Sword, made Alice certain that she'd come to the right decision. And so, off they rode to battle."

Her recitation of the battle itself was a bit hesitant. Not out of any fear of mentally scarring her audience, but because she'd been so focused on her fight with the Jabberwocky that all she was left with was a chaotic jumble of images. Still, she must not have done too badly, as Peter and every fairy there were leaning forward, hanging on her every word, and a cheer rose up when she told them how she'd finally dispatched the Jabberwocky.

From there, things wound down a bit: she told them of what had happened after the battle, how she'd gone home to straighten things out and take control of her own life, now that she had her muchness back. She even mentioned seeing Absolem again, and could have sworn she saw a fairy or three getting teary-eyed after learning that he was all right. Given that the story wasn't technically over - and might never be - she wasn't sure how to end things. "I can't say 'the end', because I have yet to finish writing my story," she said with a smile. "But then, none of us ever really do." She stole a look at the sky. She still couldn't quite see it, but it certainly did seem to be getting darker out. "And now, I believe, I must be off." She got to her feet, dislodging a number of fairies in the process. "I have reason to believe that my Queen needs me again, and I would hate to disappoint her."

Peter led the fairies in a round of applause. "A grand story, indeed!" he exclaimed. "And I would never keep a Champion from her duty. Come with me, I'll show you the way to the Black Castle." He took to the air, and, not missing a beat, she followed him. Together, they skimmed just above the trees, heading straight across the island. Since the pirates would be forced to stick to the winding ground paths, Alice hoped this would let them catch up.

"Why sunset?" she called. That seemed like a dangerous time to be moving through the jungle to her, especially since pretty much every other resident of the island seemed to actively dislike the pirates.

"They didn't say," Peter replied, and somehow, she wasn't surprised.

Annoyed, yes. But not surprised.

The Black Castle turned out to be an old abandoned castle, with stone dragons all over it. Hook was just now heading inside - alone, Alice noticed with interest - so she and Peter set down nearby. "You might want to keep a closer watch on the pirates, now that you know they're back and up to something," she suggested, partly because she didn't want him or any of the others to be caught by surprise again, and partly in case he might have been thinking about accompanying her. She could instinctively sense that this was _not _going to be fun, and felt that a warzone was no place for a child, no matter how skilled in swordsmanship he might be.

"Hopefully, they won't be too boring while Hook's away," he commented, and she felt relieved that he wasn't going to start arguing. As if to compensate for that, Petunia - whom Alice had almost forgotten was still sitting on her shoulder - zipped forward and began gesturing wildly. Peter nodded as if listening, then looked at Alice. "Petunia wants to go with you."

"You can understand her?" She was surprised, not having even heard anything beyond an almost-subliminal buzzing.

"Of course!" he said, as if that should have been obvious. Given that he had lived with fairies for even he didn't know how long... Maybe he had a point.

She looked at Petunia. "This is probably going to be extremely dangerous," she told her. Petunia assumed a fighting stance, miming a few jabs at the air. "If you come with me, I don't know if you'll ever be able to return here." Petunia waved this off with an utter lack of concern. Maybe because fairies were able to cross worlds to bring children to Neverland from the so-called 'real world'?

She had no idea, and no time to try and figure it out. Even as they stood there, the sun crept ever lower to the horizon. "Very well, but stay with me!" Petunia let out a silent cheer and quickly settled back onto her shoulder. Bidding Peter farewell, Alice crept as quietly as she could into the castle.

It was obvious that no one had lived there in a very long time, as it seemed more like a ruin then an actual castle. She had to be careful not to jar a door that looked like it might fall down at the slightest touch, and had to hurry to catch up with Hook. She caught sight of him just as he stepped through another, much more intact and functional door, shutting it behind him. She moved over to it, being careful not to step on or disturb any debris on the floor, and pressed her ear against the door.

Nothing. Not a single sound. Not even footsteps.

She hesitated there for several long moments, uncertain what to do. Was Hook on the other side, waiting to spring a trap on her? Had he heard her coming? _Well, you're never going to find out by just sitting here, _she told herself. Clutching her sword firmly in one hand, she took hold of the door handle with the other, and, after a pause, yanked the door open as quickly as she could.

Absolutely nothing was there.

She was simultaneously relieved, disappointed, and confused. It didn't seem to lead to a room at all, so much as a... closet. Confusion growing, she stepped inside, taking a better look. She could see no signs of hidden doors or secret passages. Hook was just... gone. Just as she was getting ready to step back outside and look for alternate routes to whatever was on the other side of the far wall, the door drifted shut.

She was immediately assailed by a pulsing green light, and nausea twisted her stomach until she doubled over. After longer then she appreciated, it stopped. "Are you all right?" she whispered to Petunia even as she recovered herself. The fairy fluttered in front of her, looking disheveled, and nodded. The soft golden glow she produced as she hovered let Alice get a good look at their surroundings, and once she'd stopped seeing spots, she found that the door seemed to have shifted several inches to her left.

Curious, she decided. She tentatively opened the door, surprised when light spilled inside. She looked through the door, and took a step back in surprise.

Rather then the ruins of the Black Castle, wherever she was now was whole and complete. The walls were gray rather then black, and didn't quite seem to be stone. She chanced poking her head out and taking a look around, and found that there was no sign of Hook. She did see potted plants here and there, though, as well as designs carved into the walls that she didn't recognize. She cautiously moved down the hallway, Petunia settling onto her shoulder again, but there didn't seem to be anyone else around. That didn't necessarily mean anything, though, so Alice kept her eyes open. She paused when she came upon an open door. The room was as empty as everywhere else, but what drew her attention most was the balcony. Silently praying this wouldn't turn out to be a bad idea, she walked quickly through the room and out onto it, curious as to their new surroundings.

The first thing she noticed was the sky, which was completely obscured by energized clouds that pulsed with an unearthly green light. She was immediately reminded of her maybe-dream, but this seemed different. She wondered if maybe this wasn't the source of whatever was wrong in Underland. Either way, it seemed like a good place to find some answers. She looked around, but all she could clearly make out were buildings. It seemed they were in a city of some sort, though the clouds overhead were giving the city a green appearance.

_Wait... _She frowned, taking a closer look at the buildings. No, she wasn't imagining it. It wasn't because of the storm overhead, the buildings really _were _green. They almost seemed to sparkle in the dim light.

"Petunia," she commented softly, "I have a feeling we're not in Neverland, anymore."


	4. Chapter 4

It's weird, the way these chapters just keep getting longer every time.

Title: Choices (4/?)  
Pairing: Alice/Mirana (White Queen)  
Rating: PG-13, for now  
Disclaimer: If you recognize them, chances are they aren't mine.  
Summary: It's the choices we make that make us who we are. 

* * *

The worst part about realizing you've just traveled between worlds (again) was having no idea just where you _were_, now.

It wasn't Earth. It wasn't Underland. It wasn't even Neverland. Alice had no idea how many choices that left, and frankly, part of her was afraid to find out. All she really wanted to know was what was going on. She needed answers.

_Yes, and you're certainly likely to get them by standing here, staring up at the sky. _

She took one last look at the turbulent clouds, then headed back inside. The room the balcony was attached to seemed to be a sitting room of some kind, or perhaps a study or an office. It was sparsely decorated, leading her to suspect it hadn't been used much even before... Well, whatever had happened to leave the building so deserted.

A quick search turned up nothing of interest, so she was forced to exit the study and resume making her way down the hall. By now, she knew she had no hope of finding Hook again except by complete accident, but hopefully the meeting he'd been summoned for would keep whoever he'd gone there to see too busy to notice her.

She came to an intersection where she noticed an odd chill in the air. She wasn't sure why her instincts told her to look around until she spotted a transparent figure hovering in one of the hallways, looking at her. It looked like a woman... or like it had been. She'd never seen a ghost before, but it wasn't difficult to figure out just what was facing her now.

The woman's features were blurred and indistinct, but the weight to her gaze was unmistakable. Caution, Alice decided, was most definitely called for. "Hello? Who are you?" she asked softly.

The ghost's mouth moved, but it seemed more like it was speaking into her mind then aloud. "_You're not supposed to be here._"

"No one stopped me from coming," she replied. If the spirit decided it wanted to reveal her presence, there would be precious little she would be able to do to stop it, so convincing it not to was her only hope. "Why shouldn't I be here?"

The ghost laughed, coming into focus enough for Alice to make out stern features and an untamed mess of brown curls on her head. "_Because the Mistress will tear your soul from your body and make you watch as she kills you, fool!_"

"Is that what she did to you?" Alice asked, torn between sympathy and horror.

"_Oh, yes! And I have no one to blame but myself._" She laughed again, but there was a bitter edge to it. "_I tried to escape, to take back what was rightfully mine! They had no right, **no right**, to take it from me!_"

"Who didn't? What did they take?"

It was as if she hadn't even spoken. "_I wanted to summon the most fearful creature any of them had ever seen to do my bidding, to make them suffer beyond what their pitiful minds could comprehend. Instead, **she** came. If they hadn't reduced my powers so, I could have withstood her, but as I was... She stole my life, taking it as her own. She wanted to come back, you see, back to kill, back to conquer, back to rule._"

"**Who** is? Who are you?"

"_She bound me to this place, helpless to do anything but watch, unable to move on._" She cackled, further convincing Alice that this ghost was far more mad then even the Hatter had ever managed. "_I know what awaits me, and I do not fear it. You're the one she's after, aren't you? _" She cackled again, then quickly began floating down a hallway. Alice, momentarily taken aback, had to hurry after her.

She halted in her tracks when they emerged into a room that gave the impression it had been carved from solid gold. The floor, the walls, the columns, the ceiling, everything gleamed so brightly it nearly blinded her. When her eyes had adjusted enough to see clearly, the ghost was gone. "Well," she remarked to Petunia, "that's the second person I've lost track of since coming here. I do hope that doesn't become a habit."

"I see you've met Mombi," a new voice said, and she whirled around to find... no one. "You're lucky, in a way. Barely anyone can get a coherent conversation from her, these days. Little wonder, though, considering."

She looked around the room carefully. Now that she could actually see what she was looking at, she noticed that the solid gold motif was broken up by splashes of red here and there - though there seemed to be more then there really was due to the reflections that appeared in the polished gold - and mirrors lining the walls. The throne on the raised platform made it clear just what kind of room she'd wandered into, though she was still in the dark as to where _exactly _she was. The only thing she saw that in any way resembled a clue was a bas-relief circle with a 'Z' inside it. It took her a moment to realize the circle was actually an 'O'. "O.Z.? What does that stand for?" she wondered aloud.

"It's the symbol of the land of Oz," the voice told her, and this time she caught a blur of movement in one of the mirrors. "That's where you are. I am Ozma, Queen of this realm."

Relieved to be getting straight answers at last, she turned to look at it. Reflected there was a beautiful woman around her own age with golden blonde hair and blue eyes, wearing a dazzling green gown and a tiara with the Oz symbol on it. The only problem was there was no one standing in the room to be _casting _that reflection. "Your majesty," Alice said in greeting, dipping her head briefly in respect. She did not bow, as this was not _her _queen, but it didn't feel right to just stand there, either. She walked over to the mirror. "Can you tell me what's happening?"

"What I know of it, at any rate." Ozma sighed and began pacing, moving from one mirror to another to another, then back again. "I cannot leave the palace, and my imprisonment prevents me from accessing the Magic Picture."

"The wh- No, that can wait," Alice decided. "Why... _How _are you in that mirror?"

Ozma smiled mirthlessly as she paced. "I am here because being forced to stand idle while my land is besieged, my people attacked, is intolerable to me. Ironically, I was once imprisoned thusly by Mombi herself, many years ago. This time, though, more then just Oz is in danger."

"So I've noticed. Why bring back Hook, though?"

"Being trapped somewhere between death and life herself, she is able to control the dead. Her preferred method of keeping her underlings in line seems to be killing them, then forcing them to serve her."

Alice shivered. To have your life torn from you, then to be forced into eternal servitude, with no chance for moving on... It was simply monstrous.

And it sounded disturbingly like something within Mirana's abilities, if she ever _**REALLY **_went mad.

That reminded her... "Why come after me, though? I had no idea any of this was going on until the pirates attacked, and no way off my own ship to go anywhere for some time."

Ozma paused in her pacing, looking at Alice curiously. "Who are you?"

"I-" She looked around the room warily, not caring that she couldn't _see _any sign that someone else was listening to them. "I'll tell you later."

Ozma nodded in understanding. "To continue, then, we were taken by surprise by this attack, and the Emerald City was quickly overcome by the malevolent spirits and monsters at her command. The Good Witches of the North and South were able to keep her forces confined within the city, though her lengthy absences cause me to question to what degree."

"Who is _she_?" Alice asked again, frustrated.

The look Ozma gave her was as serious as the grave. "The self-proclaimed 'Mistress of All Evil'.

"Maleficent." 

* * *

The sun was terribly late, the naughty thing.

It was fortunate, he decided, that he had plenty of lamps to give him enough light to work by. Those dismal clouds outside barely provided any illumination. Really, how could a man be expected to produce quality hats if he couldn't see what he was doing?

All in all, though, Tarrant Hightopp was pleased enough with his situation.

The far more peaceful atmosphere of Marmoreal was much more conducive to work then the oppression that had hung heavy in the air at Salazen Grum. True, the White Queen herself didn't really require much in the way of hats, given that she already wore a crown, but there were plenty in court that did make use of his services. And if he ever wanted to hat anyone from a nearby town or village, he knew the queen would have no problem with that whatsoever.

Especially these days, when she had far bigger concerns to occupy her attention.

He had asked - more then once - if there was anything she could do to help, but the queen had simply smiled and assured him that if she needed him for something, she wouldn't hesitate to ask. Her soldiers were stationed all over the kingdom, with the far more numerous playing cards farther out, while the chess pieces tended to be closer to Marmoreal. This strategy had been working so far, as one or two of either kind of knight was enough to handle any one of the assorted creatures that had appeared, but it had the result of leaving Marmoreal virtually undefended.

So he remained, ready to be called upon at a moment's notice. Most of his information about the current state of things came from Mally, who was off somewhere, even then, doing reconnaissance. And while he waited, he hatted.

"Ah, Tarrant," a voice purred from seemingly nowhere. "Still hard at work, I see."

He didn't bother looking around. Chessur would show himself when he was good and ready, and not one minute sooner. "I've told you, Ches, I don't know how to make a hat that would evaporate with you."

A faint chuckle, then Chessur materialized in front of him, hovering in front of his work desk. "Perhaps I was only stopping in to say goodbye to yours before I left."

Fighting down an urge to protectively cradle his hat, he asked, "And where are you off to?"

The Cheshire Cat swam leisurely through the air, circling him. "You've not looked out a window in some time, have you? Our queen seems to have made some headway in her struggle, and has asked me to see what effect that's had on the situation in Underland."

Hmm. Perhaps he had been a bit too focused on his latest creation - though he thought he could hardly be blamed for that, as it was rather gorgeous, and he was sure that the young lady he was making it for would be delighted with it. "That sounds time consuming, even for you."

A feline shrug answered him. "Perhaps, perhaps not. In any event, I may well be back before you know it, if you continue to ignore everything around you." Chessur vanished as he added, "Why, if you're not careful, that hat of yours could disappear, and you wouldn't even know it."

Pure reflex had him checking to make sure his hat was still on his head - it was - before he shook his head and chuckled. Ches hadn't come out and said it, but the cat obviously thought he'd been working too hard, and had been worried about his friend. He'd certainly changed from the old days, when he been concerned with very little beyond himself.

That attitude had been somewhat understandable, as no one - not even Tarrant - had any idea how old the Cheshire Cat was. He hadn't seemed to have aged a day since they'd first met, all those years ago. Tarrant personally thought Ches didn't age at all. He would hardly be the first ageless being to exist in Underland: The Bandersnatch and the Jabberwocky sprang to mind almost immediately. They all had something else in common, as well.

They'd all been seriously affected during Alice's second visit to Underland.

Of course, he'd be hard pressed to find someone he knew that hadn't. However much she may have resisted her role at first, the young champion had touched and inspired everyone she came across. Really, it was a shame she hadn't been able to stay. He thought even Mally had warmed up to her by the end.

Not to mention that, well... She hadn't said anything, but Tarrant had known Mirana for many years, so he could tell that she, especially, missed Alice considerably. Perhaps a bit more then mere friendship would allow for, but he chose not to speculate about such matters.

Perhaps he would take a short break from his work. His current project _was _almost finished, after all, and he could do with a bit of fresh air. He wasn't terribly worried about the situation, truth be told. After all, they'd already overthrown the Bloody Big Head and slain the Jabberwocky.

What could possibly be worse then that? 

* * *

"Maleficent?" Alice echoed. "Should I know who that is?"

Ozma shook her head, almost smiling. "No, and I do apologize if I implied otherwise. During your world's 14th century, in a kingdom ruled by a man named Stefan, the princess Aurora, while still an infant, was betrothed to the also-young Prince Phillip, son of King Hubert, so that the kingdoms of Stefan and Hubert would be forever united. At her christening, the Three Good Fairies Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather came to bless her. Flora gave her the gift of beauty while Fauna gave her the gift of song. However, before Merryweather was able to give her blessing, the evil fairy Maleficent appeared, expressing disappointment in not being invited to Aurora's christening ceremony. She then cursed the princess to die when she touched a spinning wheel's spindle before the sun set on her sixteenth birthday. After Maleficent left, Merryweather was able to use her blessing to weaken the curse so that instead of death, Aurora fell into a deep sleep until, to be awakened by true love's kiss. Though King Stefan decreed all spinning wheels in the kingdom burned, the Three Good Fairies knew Maleficent's curse could not be stopped so easily, and devised a plan to protect her. With the king and queen's consent, they disguised themselves as peasant women and snuck Aurora away with them to a woodland cottage until her sixteen birthday lapsed, passing themselves off as her aunts and swearing off magic to conceal themselves."

"How do you know this?" Alice asked. She knew she shouldn't have interrupted, but couldn't quite help it.

Fortunately, Ozma didn't take offense. "At times, when she is in the proper mood, I've been able to get Maleficent to talk about a few things other then the havoc she's been causing. And before my court scattered and fled, I was able to sneak one or two of them into my boudoir to use the Magic Picture to find out more."

"You mentioned that picture before," Alice noted. "What is it?"

"It usually appears to be of a pleasant countryside, but when anyone wishes for the picture to show a particular person or place, the scene will display what is wished for. Unfortunately, the only mirror in that room is a looking glass that is nowhere near it."

"If you took me there, could I make use of it?"

"Yes, but my chambers are locked quite securely. Either she suspects that someone may sneak into the palace to try and aid me, or she thinks the pirates may try to steal it." She smiled briefly. "In that, she's likely correct. But please, allow me to finish my story first. Years later, Aurora, renamed Briar-Rose, had grown into a gorgeous young woman with the blessings that Flora and Fauna bestowed to her. Sweet and gentle, she dreamt of falling in love one day."

"That was all she wanted?" Alice shook her head. "I know this was the 14th century, but still..."

"Don't forget, she was quite sheltered, growing up," Ozma reminded her. "But this story is only partly about her. By that time, Maleficent had become quite vexed at her minions' incompetence in locating the princess and sent her raven familiar, Diablo, to look for Aurora. For whatever reason, on the day of her sixteenth birthday, the fairies did something with their magic that caught Diablo's attention. Meanwhile, Aurora encountered Prince Phillip, now a handsome young man, as he was out riding his horse in the woods. When they met, they instantly fell in love, Phillip believing her to be a peasant girl. Realizing that she had to return home, Aurora fled from Phillip without ever learning his name. Despite promising to meet him again, the fairies, not knowing that the man Aurora met was the prince, revealed the truth of her birth to her and took her to her parents and her betrothed's family insisting that she never see him again, much to her dismay. Meanwhile, Phillip returned home telling his father of a peasant girl he met and wished to marry in spite of his prearranged marriage to Princess Aurora."

_Good for him, _Alice decided. She'd never been fond of the idea of arranged marriages, even before she'd nearly been pushed into one herself.

"In the castle, Maleficent used her magic to lure Aurora away from her boudoir and up to a tower, where a spinning wheel awaited her. Fascinated by the wheel with Maleficent's will enforcing it, Aurora touched the spindle, pricking her finger and completing the curse. The good fairies placed Aurora on a bed and sent all in the kingdom into a deep ageless sleep until the spell was broken. While falling asleep, King Hubert tried to tell Stefan of his son being in love with a peasant girl, which caused Flora realize that Prince Phillip was the man Aurora has fallen in love with, and they flew back to the cottage for him since his love for Aurora would break the spell. At that time, Prince Phillip arrived at the cottage, but was captured by Maleficent's minions and taken to the dungeons of her lair, "The Forbidden Mountain", to prevent him from kissing Aurora. However, the fairies snuck into Maleficent's stronghold and freed the prince. Armed with the magical Sword of Truth and The Shield of Virtue, Phillip and the fairies escaped from the Forbidden Mountain whilst being attacked by Maleficent's minions, which the fairies succeed in blocking. When Diablo tried to warn Maleficent, Merryweather chased him and eventually killed him by turning him into a stone statue, alerting Maleficent. The prince braved all obstacles Maleficent throws at him to reach the palace, including a large bush of thorns, before battling Maleficent herself when she transformed into a gigantic fire-breathing dragon. After a long fight in which his shield is destroyed, Phillip threw the sword, blessed by the fairies' magic, directly into Maleficent's heart, causing Maleficent to fall to her death from a cliff, leaving nothing but her robe and the sword now black.

"After that, of course, Phillip climbed to Aurora's chamber, and removed the curse with a kiss. They all lived happily ever after, but as Maleficent proved, dead and gone are two separate things. She slowly gathered her strength, until at last she was able to break through from the land of the dead. It must have been quite a shock to her to find how civilized your world had become, for you see, in the civilized countries there are no witches left; nor wizards, nor sorceresses, nor magicians. The Land of Oz, however, has never been 'civilized' in such a fashion, and thus still contains magic in abundance." She frowned and began talking quietly to herself. "I do worry what will become of Oz when civilization spreads here, as well. There _must _be a way to ensure that magic will endure..."

Alice waited for several moments, then quietly cleared her throat. "Um, Maleficent?"

Ozma blushed lightly. "My apologies. As I was saying, she came to Oz and took over the palace, stripping me of most of my magic. She could not use it herself, for it was from the living, and was also inherently good, incompatible with her evilness. Instead, she formed it into a belt that she then locked away somewhere far away from me. Once I was imprisoned, her forces spread out into the city to search."

"Search for what?"

"The emerald. In the distant past, so long ago that her name is lost, an evil witch attempted to use an emerald of great power to conquer the Land of Oz. It's written that the forces of good stopped her before her power could eclipse all others, and a great city of emeralds was built, to hide it so that none could ever again attempt to bury the land in darkness. She hasn't found it, yet, nor will she. The only place any clue to its location might be found is in the Great Book of Records, and that is safely in the hands of Glinda the Good." Then, knowing what Alice was likely to ask next, Ozma continued, "In this book is inscribed everything that takes place in all the world, just the instant it happens; so that by referring to its pages Glinda knows what is taking place far and near, in every country that exists."

"And yet she was unable to prevent Maleficent's return," Alice noted. Still, though, this 'Great Book' sounded rather like the Ozian equivalent to the Oraculum. Was that why Maleficent had set her sights on Underland?

"The Book would not have told her it was happening until it had already begun," Ozma defended. "In any event, Maleficent then began setting her sights on other worlds. I don't know why, as she refuses to tell me anything that might potentially be useful to me, unless she can torment me by doing so."

"How so?"

Ozma sighed. "There are only two ways to be free of my imprisonment. Either I can be released as before, by my champion... or I can surrender the Ruby Slippers to Maleficent. If she had those... In the right hands, they are objects of great power. With them, she would have no need of an emerald, or anything else she might seek. There would be no stopping her. However, while I may not have been able to stop her, I _was _able to send them away, to where she cannot follow."

"And your champion?" Alice felt a flicker of excitement. She would love to be able to meet another champion, someone who might _truly _understand everything she'd gone through.

Ozma's smile returned in full force as her eyes warmed. "Dorothy Gale. Twice before has she saved Oz from the wicked and corrupt. I have used the Magic Picture to keep in touch with her over the years. More then just my champion, she is my friend." And more then that, Alice judged, if the look in Ozma's eyes was any indication. Now she was even more keen to talk with this Dorothy. "I fear that this would be too much for her to handle alone, however, so it is just as well that I cannot call her."

"What if she weren't alone?" Alice asked. "What if she had help?"

Ozma studied her carefully. "Even so, I cannot summon her from here. Truthfully, I do not believe I could even do so free, with so much of my power gone."

"What did Maleficent say about releasing you?" Alice pressed. "_Exactly _what?" A theory was beginning to form in her mind, but she hesitated to give it voice just yet, not wanting to pointlessly get Ozma's hopes up if she was wrong.

Ozma continued studying her for several more moments, then slowly said, "She told me that only the touch of a champion truly devoted to her queen could break the spell holding me here. Perhaps she believed that, after so long, even Dorothy would not be devoted enough to me to accomplish that." Clearly, Ozma didn't agree, giving Alice a hint as to where she might have sent those slippers **to**.

Alice raised a hand and placed it against the mirror. Not looking like she expected anything to happen, Ozma did the same. And for a moment, nothing did happen... then it did. The glass seemed to ripple where their hands met, and Alice's fingers sunk into the mirror. It was the most curious thing she'd ever felt, like reaching into a thick, silvery liquid that was somehow completely dry.

Living flesh touched her own, and she grabbed onto Ozma's hand and pulled. Looking astonished, the queen of Oz stepped free of the mirror. "How...?"

Alice smiled. "Just a little loophole." During the negotiations in China that she'd been party to, she'd become well acquainted with the concept of looking for possible loopholes that the other side might seek to exploit. "Maleficent made it clear that only a champion truly devoted to her queen could free you, but she never said that queen had to be **you**."

Ozma's lips quirked into a smile as she let go of Alice's hand. "Your name wouldn't happen to be Alice, would it?"

Alice smiled back at her. "In fact, it would." She lost her smile quickly. "Will she know that you're free?"

Ozma considered that. "Possibly. The fact that she hasn't come running yet, though, indicates she may not."

"Either way, it would be a good idea to be somewhere else when she does."

"Indeed. First, to the Magic Picture. I would know what has been going on in my realm that Maleficent has not seen fit to share with me. After that..." Her expression hardened. "After that, we must seek out some method of destroying Maleficent once and for all."

She headed for a door Alice hadn't even noticed, hidden among the mirrors. "Can we not simply defeat her the same way Prince Phillip did?" Alice asked as she followed along behind her. Could you really speak of 'slaying' someone who was already dead? Alice wondered.

Ozma sighed. "Possibly. But I have no idea what became of the Sword of Truth, and even if I did, from what Maleficent's story says, it was corrupted badly in killing her the first time. I doubt it would work now. So, unless you know of some other magical, dragon-slaying sword..."

Alice allowed herself a mysterious smile. "Oh, you'd be surprised..." Finally, she had a valid reason to head straight to Underland. No more jumping from one random world to the next, no more chasing undead pirates, just Mirana. Because while dragons were not the same as Jabberwocks, she knew - she _**knew**_, on some deep, fundamental level - that the Vorpal Sword could take care of Maleficent.

They snuck carefully and quietly through the palace. They encountered no one, but Alice warned Petunia to stay out of sight in the event that they did, as from what she'd picked up from Ozma's story, Maleficent seemed to _really _hate fairies. True, they didn't seem to be the same kind of fairy that Petunia was, but why take foolish chances?

Ozma's boudoir proved to be easy enough to get into, as, despite her nearly non-existent magic, the palace seemed to recognize her, and let them in without complaint. The room was sparsely furnished, making Alice suspect that, despite the ostentatiousness of the throne room, Ozma preferred more understated decor. There was an antique looking glass against one wall, a couch and a few scattered chairs, a gorgeously detailed carved wooden desk, and no portraits on the wall... except one.

The Magic Picture did indeed display a rather pleasant countryside, right up until Ozma marched over to it and commanded, "Show me the Emerald City." The image glowed and vanished, replaced by a view of an intact but seemingly deserted city. It switched to another view, and another, and another, but they all told the same story. The city was there, but the people weren't. Ozma bit her lip, then shook her head and said, "Show me Glinda the Good."

The picture changed to display a beautiful woman in a pure white dress working at a desk that was somehow neatly organized yet covered with papers. Her hair was a dusky blondish shade, somewhere between blonde and red. "Glinda!" Ozma shouted, and the woman looked up in surprise.

"Ozma! Thank goodness you're free." She got to her feet and walked around the desk to head toward the picture, making Alice suspect there was something on Glinda's end that was acting as a receiver of sorts. "Are you all right?"

"I haven't been physically harmed, if that's what you mean. What happened to all the people?" She didn't elaborate on who she was talking about, but Glinda seemed to understand.

"The evil ones were slow to spread out through the city - I suspect their leader was too preoccupied with dealing with you - giving the citizens ample time to evacuate."

Ozma sighed in relief, while Alice frowned. 'Their leader'? That didn't sound like someone with an all-knowing Book at her disposal. "I don't suppose your Great Book of Records might say anything that could help us?"

Rather then be offended, Glinda smiled. "You must be Alice." Alice's frown deepened - she didn't like the idea of being mentioned in _another _compendium - as Glinda said, "The Book's latest entries have been increasingly obscure. I believe, though, that you already know what to do, and that you have all the necessary tools to do it. You must not tarry overlong, though. The latest counter-attack by your queen succeeded in pushing Maleficent back, but that will have made her all the more angry. What you are seeking is on the other side of the glass."

What did _that _mean? The only thing she'd seen that was on the other side of any glass was Ozma, who was currently going over a few more things with Glinda involving the citizens of Oz. Alice didn't pay much attention as Ozma attended to the state of her kingdom, knowing they'd call her if they needed her. She thought and thought, but was unable to discern the meaning of the witch's words. She knew that was likely due to the cryptic meaning of the words in the Book, but it was still vexing.

She looked up when she realized the room had fallen silent, and discovered that the Magic Picture had returned to its natural state, while Ozma stood off to the side, lost in thought. Glinda had warned them not to linger, but Alice had no idea where to go next, and from the look of her, neither did Ozma. She looked back at the Picture. Could it...? _It's worth a try, _she decided. "Show me Mirana of Marmoreal," she commanded it.

And there she was.

The White Queen was walking down a hallway, surrounded by advisers, ladies in waiting, and various other court members. "Mirana!" she called, disheartened when none of them gave any sign of hearing her. "_Mirana!_"

"She can't hear you," Ozma confirmed, stepping closer. "You would need a suitably prepared mirror on the other side for communication, especially across worlds."

"I was afraid of that," Alice admitted with a sigh. Still, it was good to know that Mirana was still in one piece and healthy, even if she did seem a bit tired. On a whim, Alice told the Magic Picture, "Show me Iracebeth of Crims."

The Magic Picture obediently changed images, and Alice sucked in a shocked breath. If not for the size of the figure's head, she never would have known she was looking at the former Red Queen. The woman displayed was filthy and wearing torn and tattered clothing. The light in the dungeon cell - for the dank room she was sitting on the floor of could be nothing else - was poor, but they could still tell that she was thin and emaciated. Clearly, prisoner care was not among Maleficent's priorities. And why was she a prisoner? "She's still alive, isn't she?"

"It does seem that way," Ozma agreed, just as surprised and dismayed as Alice. "Maleficent has said nothing of anyone named Iracebeth within my hearing, though, so I could not tell you why."

A thought struck Alice. "She practices - or practiced, at any rate - Dominion Over the Living."

Ozma considered that. "It's possible that made her incompatible with Maleficent's magic. Why she would keep her around, though..."

"Why would she wish to attack Underland at all?" Alice countered. "It seems to have brought her nothing but problems." She returned her attention to the Picture. "Show me Ilosovic Stayne."

And there he was, just as repulsive as she remembered. It was curious how being undead didn't seem to have changed him in the slightest. He was standing at attention near a woman wearing a black and purple robe with bat wing-like edges, who was berating a cringing Captain Hook. She was tall, slender, beautiful, with a narrow face and a prominent chin, yellow eyes and a horned headdress. What caught Alice's attention most, though, was her pale green skin. "Did she look like that before she died?"

Ozma smiled briefly, but her eyes remained hard as she stared at her captor. "Yes. The strange thing is, she's not the first green wicked woman who's sought to inflict harm upon the people of Oz."

They listened in silence for a minute longer, but it appeared that timing was not on their side. Maleficent wrapped up her scolding of Hook and sent him scurrying off without revealing anything that would be of any use to either of them. She shook her head as he departed. "Really, is it so hard to capture one young woman?"

"She does have a habit of summoning unlikely allies to her side to help her evade capture," Stayne remarked. "It caused the Red Queen no end of frustration."

"That hardly seems a difficult task," Maleficent said dryly. She frowned and tilted her head to the side, as if listening to something. "Perhaps I should have just had her killed on sight." She then turned to stare directly at the Magic Picture. "What do _you _think, my dear Ozma?"

Alice stiffened. "I thought you said she couldn't see or hear us without a properly prepared mirror."

"She can't," Ozma replied. "But, it seems, she can sense when she's being watched." She waved a hand, and the Magic Picture returned to its normal appearance.

It was too late, though. They were forced to take several steps back as a pillar of green fire appeared between them and the Magic Picture. The fire quickly resolved itself into the form of Maleficent. She carried a staff with a glowing green orb at the tip, and Alice instinctively moved to place herself between it and Ozma, raising her sword.

The wicked fairy studied her. "Well," she said finally, "you are not Dorothy Gale, are you? Unfortunate for you. And yet..." Her gaze drifted to Ozma, then back. Comprehension dawned. "Well, well. Miss Kingsleigh, is it?" She chuckled, a surprisingly pleasant sound. "Oh, now how did I miss that little loophole? Ah, well. Perhaps I shouldn't have berated poor James, so. He did accomplish his task, in the end, for here you are."

"What do you want with me?" Alice demanded, not bothering to waste time denying who she was. She could tell that wouldn't work.

"Why, I want you to be my guest," Maleficent replied pleasantly, smiling at her.

"No, thank you. I've seen how you treat your 'guests'."

"Are you referring to Mombi? You should know that, were she still alive, she would have tried to kill you and steal your head for her own use by now. Or perhaps you mean Iracebeth, who would slaughter everyone you know and love with a smile on her face."

"And Ozma?"

"Don't tell me you actually believed her stories about being a kind and wise ruler," Maleficent scoffed. "She may not have people beheaded at the slightest offenses, but otherwise she is no better then your Red Queen was, indulging in her every childish whim and hang the consequences."

"That's a lie!" Ozma shouted, glaring at her. "You attack my kingdom, steal my magic, assault and murder my people, and now seek to disparage _me_?"

"Calm down," Alice told her. "You're just giving her what she wants. And quite frankly, that's enough chatter." She lunged forward, driving the length of her blade through Maleficent's torso, just below her ribs.

Maleficent eyed her for a moment, then sighed and shook her head. "How juvenile," she remarked as she reached down and pulled it free. No blood escaped the hole it left behind, which rapidly disappeared before Alice's shocked gaze. "I'm disappointed in you, Miss Kingsleigh. That was terribly rude." She tossed the sword off to the side.

Alice didn't take her eyes off Maleficent to see where it landed. It didn't matter in any event, since a regular sword obviously wasn't going to do the job. Not that she'd really expected it to, but it had been worth a shot. "Why Underland?" she asked, partly to stall for time in which to think of another strategy, and partly because she _really _wanted to know.

Judging by her smile, Maleficent was fully aware of both of her reasons. "Stay here with me, and I'll tell you all about it. Who knows? Perhaps you could even manage to talk me out of any further attacks. I can make your time here quite... pleasant."

Ozma, still standing behind Alice, clutched her arm. "No! You can't trust her!"

"Don't worry, I'm hardly about to do that," Alice assured her. While the idea of being able to prevent any further attacks on Underland without any violence was tempting, she was not so foolish as to believe that would actually happen. It was puzzling, though, the way Maleficent kept trying to talk her into staying of her own free will. She'd shown no problem with trapping Mombi's spirit or imprisoning Ozma.

That, she decided, was something she could worry about later. Right now, they needed to get away. She doubted that Maleficent would just let them stroll out the door, and they were _far _too high to go out the window. True, Petunia's fairy dust might change that equation, but there _really _wasn't time to teach Ozma how to fly. The only other thing she could think of was the looking glass, and the way Ozma had been able to go from mirror to mirror before. Could that work again? Or maybe...

No, that was impossible.

Or was it?

"Now really, you're going to hurt my feelings if you keep insulting me like that," Maleficent said, voice dripping with false sorrow.

"Perhaps we should just leave, then," Alice replied, backing Ozma toward the mirror.

"So soon? I won't hear of it." The orb on her staff began glowing ominously. What she needed, Alice decided, was a distraction.

She got one, but not one that she would have chosen. Petunia abandoned her hiding spot under Alice's hair to dart out into the open and hover near Maleficent's face. The wicked fairy's expression contorted into one of rage. "A fairy," she spat. "I knew I should have obliterated Neverland as soon as I found it." She launched a bolt of lightning at Petunia, who dodged with amazing speed before streaking in to strike Maleficent's face, sending her staggering back a few steps. Obviously, she hadn't expected a physical attack.

This, Alice knew, was the best opening she was going to get. She turned, grabbed Ozma's hand, and dashed for the mirror. "We have to get to Underland," she said as quietly as possible, not wanting Maleficent to overhear.

If the several loud cracks of thunder behind them were any indication, she needn't have worried.

"We can't get there through a mirror," Ozma objected. "That's impossible!"

Recalling the wise words her friend the Hatter had told her once, Alice smiled and replied, "Only if you _believe _it is." And she believed that this mirror was a doorway back to her Wonderland. She really, truly did.

She walked forward and met with virtually no resistance as she stepped through the looking glass. "Petunia! We're leaving!" she called, and the tiny fairy abandoned her fight to zip to Alice's side. Alice looked back to see a look of surprise on Maleficent's face that might have been considered comical, if she wasn't sure it would shortly give way to murderous rage. "Thank you for your hospitality, but we really must be going, now," she said as she pulled Ozma through. Once she was sure Petunia was also through, she held up her hand and waved it from right to left, as she'd seen Ozma do. Maleficent and the rest of Ozma's boudoir disappeared from the glass, replaced with their reflections.

"Amazing," Ozma breathed, shaking her head in wonder.

Alice, however, was looking around their new surroundings. She was sure this was Underland - it had to be, or they wouldn't have been able to get away - but it wasn't any part of it that she was familiar with. Aside from the looking glass, there didn't seem to be anything around nearby beyond the dirt on the ground. Past that... "Oh, dear."

Ozma followed her gaze to see that they were standing in a bubble about a quarter of the size of her boudoir, with water on the other side, and the dim light straight up said that the bubble was located at the bottom of a deep lake.

"Well," Alice remarked as she looked up. "This could be a problem."


	5. Chapter 5

Title: Choices (5/?)  
Pairing: Alice/Mirana (White Queen), implied Dorothy/Ozma  
Rating: PG-13, for now  
Disclaimer: If you recognize them, chances are they aren't mine.  
Summary: It's the choices we make that make us who we are. 

* * *

It was incredibly frustrating, knowing how close she was to Mirana - dimensionally, if not necessarily geographically - only to be stymied by something like being stuck at the bottom of a lake.

Alice walked to one edge of the bubble, tentatively reaching out to touch it. It felt exactly as if she was touching the surface, with no evidence of whatever force was keeping the bubble intact. She pushed forward, extending her hand into the water. It was water, nothing more, nothing less. Yet when she withdrew her hand, it was completely dry.

It was one of the more peculiar things she'd ever encountered, and in light of recent events, that was _really _saying something.

It was also not terribly helpful. Oh, it kept them from drowning, and she was certainly grateful for that, but with no real idea where they were in regards to the shore, they could hardly hold their breath and try to _walk _ to dry land. Trying to swim in a dress didn't strike her as something that would end well, and she suspected that the water would wash any fairy dust off of them, making flying to safety impossible.

Assuming, of course, that they had time to think of something at all.

Well, that, at least, was a fairly straightforward problem. "First things first, I suppose," she mused, then walked back to the mirror. Ozma, who'd been watching her experiment with the bubble with interest, looked at her in confusion. Certainly Alice couldn't be thinking of going _back._..

Her confusion only grew when Alice moved behind the mirror and grasped both sides of it, grunting with satisfaction when she found that it wasn't secured to the ground in any way. It hadn't _looked _like it was, but then, it didn't _look _like there was anything keeping the water from crushing them, and there clearly was. "What are you doing?"

"Help me with this," Alice requested. It wasn't that she was ignoring the queen's question - though there was a tiny part in the back of her mind that did somewhat enjoy making someone _else _wait for answers for a change - she just didn't know how much time they had. The mirror was a little heavier then it looked, and she didn't want to take any chances with it.

Puzzled, Ozma did as she asked, taking hold of one side while Alice took the other. When they began moving it to one side of the bubble, Ozma thought she understood. "Ah, I see. You believe that since this air pocket is likely here because of the looking glass, it may shift and move with it?"

Alice paused. "I didn't even think of that," she admitted. "It would have been a good idea, too. Though it doesn't seem to be working." Indeed, they had reached the boundary of the dry area, and it hadn't altered one inch.

"Then what are we doing?"

Alice, with Ozma's help, turned the mirror around, then moved it so that the glass was nearly touching the water. "We're making it harder for Maleficent to figure out where we went," Alice said finally. "I have no idea how long it'll take her to figure out how to get through the mirror, but if she she sends someone through and they emerge in the water, at the bottom of a lake..."

"...then she'll believe she got the wrong world, or that we're dead," Ozma finished. She beamed at Alice. "Brilliant!"

Alice shrugged, allowing herself a small smile in return. "If nothing else, it should slow them down a bit. I'd put it in the water completely if I wasn't afraid that might puncture our bubble, or some such thing." She shook her head. "Given that her soldiers are undead, they won't drown, no matter where it is. Us, on the other hand..." She sighed. "I must confess, I'm at a loss as to what we're supposed to do now. How far down are we, do you think?"

Ozma frowned up at the surface. "Given the lack of light... If the cloud cover is as thick here as it is in Oz..." She was silent for almost a minute as she thought. "I would say between seventy and ninety feet, perhaps."

Alice grumbled something unrepeatable under her breath. That was just a little too far, especially in such bulky clothing. Or without it, really, which was the only thing stopping her from removing her dress. "We could _almost _do it, especially if it were closer to seventy, or less. But I think Petunia would have even more trouble then we would." Really, how much air could a fairy hold in her tiny little lungs? She shook her head. "Why in the world would the mirror _be _in such a place?"

"Perhaps so that, should anyone come through, they would be stopped, but not killed," Ozma guessed.

"Which implies that someone's come through from Oz before," Alice noted.

"Presuming that one can only reach Oz through it."

Alice stopped herself before she could reply again. As interesting as such speculation was, it could wait until they were on the surface. "There's got to be a way," she murmured. "If we could just build up enough speed..." An idea struck her, and she blinked in surprise. It was a trifle mad, but given that they _were _in Underland, that just made her more convinced that it would work. She turned to Ozma. "I know you said that you don't have all that much magic left," she began. "But do you think you form a bubble similar to this one, on a much smaller scale?"

Ozma hesitated. "I might be able to surround us in a protective sphere," she said slowly. "But it wouldn't last nearly long enough for us to reach shore."

"That's not what I'm suggesting," Alice assured her. "I mean for Petunia, so that we can take her with us."

"Oh." Ozma considered that. "I believe so, yes."

"Good." She turned her gaze to the fairy hovering nearby. "Petunia, I'll need you to dust us, if you wouldn't mind." Petunia nodded excitedly and began showering them both in fairy dust. "I don't know what you know about the fairies of Neverland," she began once Petunia was finished, but Ozma held up a hand to cut her off.

"I know that their dust allows you to fly if you can hold onto a happy thought," she told Alice. "But I daresay that the water will wash it off long before we can get to the surface."

"I agree," Alice replied. "But if we can build up enough speed down here first, we should be able to make it far enough to swim the rest of the way." She sat down and removed her shoes. Torn, dirty, and soon to be waterlogged dress, a number of minor cuts and bruises, and now no shoes... Well, she was certain to present quite the image to Mirana, wasn't she? She didn't even want to think about what _else _might happen between then and now, half for fear that doing so might somehow make it actually happen.

"That may just work." Ozma followed suit, stepping gracefully out of her shoes without apparent care. "You do certainly seem to have a... _unique _approach to problems."

Alice smiled. "Wait until you meet my friends."

"I shall look forward to it." Concentrating intensely, Ozma created the promised safety sphere for Petunia, wincing inwardly at how much effort it took to do even that.

"Then let us do this." Alice took to the air - maybe she could get Mirana to bottle some of that dust? - and waited until she was sure Ozma had done the same, then began flying in a circle around the perimeter of the bubble. They continued doing so over and over, building up speed until Alice was certain they could go no faster, then took deep breaths as they altered course and headed straight up.

Hitting the water was a shock, and she nearly gasped in surprise at the sudden, cold slap in the face before remembering exactly why that would be a bad idea. They continued upward for another fifteen to twenty feet, feeling their flight falter until it finally gave out. They quickly began swimming upward before they lost too much momentum, Alice making sure that Petunia's bubble was keeping pace with them, which it was.

_Should have taken the dress off first, _she decided. Too late for that now, though. Getting out of it was difficult enough on dry land. She'd run out of air and drown getting free from it underwater. Besides which, they were getting closer. Thirty feet... Twenty-five... Twenty...

Her lungs were burning fiercely by this point.

Fifteen feet...

Ten...

Black spots were dancing in front of her eyes.

Five feet...

_Don't give up now, Alice, you're almost there! _she thought urgently.

Three...

Two...

One...

She burst through the surface of the lake, letting out her captured breath explosively, sucking in fresh air as quickly as she could manage. Petunia zipped by her face, her bubble having vanished once she was out of the water. "We made it," she proclaimed, half-disbelieving.

She received no agreement. Nor, for that matter, did she hear any other splashing nearby.

A bolt of panic ripped through her as she realized that Ozma had yet to surface.

She sucked in a deep breath and dove back under, forcing her eyes to stay open despite the fierce sting. She could only thank the Lord that this wasn't happening in the ocean, or a salt water lake. She never would have been able to keep her eyes open long enough to see anything.

It didn't take her long to spot Ozma. The queen had gotten close, but either she just wasn't quite a good enough swimmer or that spell she'd cast for Petunia had taken more out of her then she'd let on, because she was drifting about ten feet below the surface of the lake. Alice darted over to her as quickly as she was able and grabbed a hold of her, feeling a measure of relief when she was rewarded with a feeble movement. She dragged Ozma to the surface, where she coughed violently, trying to get the water out of her lungs at the same time she tried to get fresh air in. Alice struggled to hold her up while treading water herself.

Finally, Ozma managed to coordinate her movements enough to keep herself above the water, though she was still coughing frequently. "Thank you," she managed to choke out.

"Not a problem," Alice assured her. "Come on, the sooner we get to the shore, the better."

"I concur."

It took them a while, since they had been in the approximate center of a good-sized lake. Alice's muscles were aching by the time they got to the beach, and she had to nearly drag Ozma up onto the sand. She managed to get them halfway up the beach before collapsing in a heap.

She had no idea how long they were laying there, which was aided not at all by the fact that, when she finally scraped up enough presence of mind to check, she found that they were bone dry. Had she fallen asleep for a few hours? No, she decided a moment later. She'd still be damp, and she wouldn't still be so exhausted. She could only assume, then, that the water had decided it wanted to stay in the lake.

That was fine with her, really.

Her arms were shaking as she levered herself onto her feet, at which point her legs also began complaining vigorously. "Get up," she told Ozma, who had yet to move. "Come on, you can't go to sleep here."

"Sure I can," Ozma replied without opening her eyes. "Watch."

Alice smiled despite herself. "You'll regret it later," she promised. "Look, you can rest when we get to Marmoreal, all right?"

Ozma sighed, but opened her eyes and allowed herself to be helped to her feet. "Where is that in relation to here?"

Truthfully, Alice had no idea. "Petunia, fly up a ways, would you? See if you can find any landmarks." The fairy nodded agreeably before zooming straight up and out of sight. While they waited, Alice moved onto more solid ground, taking in their surroundings. The lake seemed to be in the middle of - or at least was surrounded by - a forest, which narrowed things down _somewhat, _she supposed. Just not enough.

She was fairly certain, though, that Marmoreal was a rather long hike from wherever they were, which meant that they were going to have a _**lot **_of trouble getting there on foot. Perhaps once Petunia got back she could dust them again? That would cut travel time down considerably.

When the fairy returned, however, she realized it wouldn't be quite that easy. Petunia was obviously agitated, and began frantically waving Alice forward. "What's wrong?" she asked as she followed her, a wincing Ozma just barely keeping up - though that had more to do with Petunia's hurried pace then anything else.

It wasn't that she'd really expected Petunia to answer her aloud, but Alice could usually figure out what she was trying to say via her charades. This time, though, she didn't even do that, instead flying off into the forest, only waiting long enough to make sure Alice and Ozma were still behind her.

They'd been walking for a few minutes before sounds began to drift to them from up ahead: animal snarls and growls, and, as they got closer, thuds and crashes indicative of a fight. Once she understood what was going on, Alice picked up her pace, leaving Ozma little choice but to do the same. "Is that what I think it is, up ahead?"

Alice didn't even pause. "Most likely, yes."

"And we're heading _toward _the vicious fight to the death because...?"

"The animals in Underland talk." Or most of them did, at any rate. She wondered, sometimes, why the Bandersnatch didn't seem to have a voice, but even it obviously understood human speech, which she thought was basically the same thing.

"And you believe you can talk them out of trying to kill each other?"

"I have to try." The mere idea of continuing on while two intelligent beings tried to kill each other didn't sit well with her, and that this was her Wonderland made her all the more determined to make them stop. "That's what champions do, right? Protect the people of the land?" she offered.

Ozma huffed a laugh and let the subject drop. They came to a clearing and Alice stopped dead, Ozma nearly crashing into her before she noticed. The lion Alice was only half surprised by, as while she'd never seen one in Underland before, it was at least a real animal.

It was the unicorn that had stunned her into immobility.

It was the size of a large stallion, pure white with a golden mane, tail... and horn. (The lion was very nearly as big, which she realized made it rather large for a lion.) She had no idea why, of everything she'd encountered in Wonderland, _this _was what would amaze her so, but an actual unicorn... It made her feel like a little girl all over again, little Alice on her first trip to Wonderland.

And it and the lion were trying to kill each other.

"No! Stop it!" she shouted at them, running forward without much in the way of a plan. They _had _to stop. That two such wonderful and magical beings wanted to kill each other... The thought was simply unbearable.

"Wait!" Ozma hissed, making a grab for her that fell short. She'd been watching the fight - and was no less appalled then Alice, though she knew better then to just charge right into the middle of something like that without any kind of plan - and had noted that, rather then being alert and calculating like most lions, this particular one seemed slow and rather stupid, falling for the same trick again and again - although it was clearly the better fighter. It relied on brute force, while the unicorn utilized strategy and cunning.

Alice's shout had managed to stop the fight - though it took the lion a full second longer to realize that something was happening - and the combatants turned to look at her. She made it halfway to them before the unicorn reared up and proclaimed, "A monster!"

Alice froze, utterly nonplussed. The unique magical being thought that _she _was... Well. Of all the reactions from all of the inhabitants of Underland, Neverland, and Oz that she'd met... that wasn't one of them. "I am no such thing," she finally managed to protest.

"You don't fool me, monster!" the Unicorn replied. "I can see through your clever disguise!"

"I don't think she is a monster," the Lion interjected, blinking at her in confusion.

"_Thank _you!" she told him with a nod.

"Ha! As if you would know a monster when you saw one."

"What are you fighting about, anyway?" Ozma asked as she drifted closer. The Unicorn didn't react violently to _her, _which a small, childish part of Alice thought was patently unfair.

"The Lion and the Unicorn were fighting for the crown," a new voice interjected, and Alice whirled around excitedly. "Which, given that they're both on the side of the White Queen..."

"_Chessur!_" she burst out, quickly spotting the cat that had materialized near Ozma's right side. She sprinted back and gathered him up into a hug, rubbing her face against his soft fur. "Oh, it's so good to see you!" She was surprised and touched by the purr she could feel rumbling through his frame.

"Alice! Well, this _is _a pleasant surprise. And who is your new companion?"

Alice let him go and straightened up, not at all embarrassed. "This is Ozma, Queen of the Land of Oz. It's her realm that the evil force attacking Underland is striking from." Her smile faded as she thought of Maleficent. "Ozma, this is Chessur, the Cheshire Cat."

"Pleased to meet you," Ozma said with a gracious nod. "Now... Did you say that these two were fighting _for the same side_?"

"Yes... No one in Underland knows quite what to do with them, which is why they're out here in the middle of nowhere. They were chased out of town."

"You're _the _Alice?" the Unicorn interjected.

"Yes, I am." She could hardly be upset about being identified as such anymore, could she?

"The one who slew the Jabberwocky?"

"Yes, I did."

The Lion blinked. "The Jabberwocky's dead?"

"Yes, it is."

"Does the Queen know you're a monster?"

Alice slapped a hand over her face, shaking her head and counting to five before lowering it.

"A monster?" Chessur sounded amused. "I can assure you, my dear Lion, that she is no such thing."

"Oh." The Lion thought that over. "That's good."

"Quite. So glad we've gotten that settled," Alice muttered, then turned to Chessur. "What are _you _doing out here, then?"

"Checking on the state of the kingdom for our Queen. I dare say she'll be thrilled to hear that you're back."

"Don't tell her," Alice blurted impulsively. At Chessur's inquisitive look, she allowed herself an impish smile and added, "I want to surprise her."

The Cat chuckled. "Only if I get to see the look on her face when she sees you."

"Deal." She turned a speculative look on the Lion and the Unicorn. "Would you two be willing to give us a ride?"

The Unicorn shied back nervously, while the Lion only blinked slowly at them. "Us?"

"Yes. We need to get to Marmoreal, to see the White Queen." She was reasonably certain that would get their attention, if nothing else.

"I'm certain, as loyal servants of the White Queen, you'll want to get her champion to her as quickly as possible," Ozma added, giving them a significant look.

"If she'd become Champion, we would have felt it," the Unicorn protested.

Alice didn't know quite what _that _meant, but she knew an opening when she heard one. "That's _why _I have to get to Mirana," she told him. "You must know by now what's going on. She _needs _a Champion." She thought she detected a slight emphasis on the word when the Unicorn used it, as if it were an official title or an office, rather then just a description. She made a mental note to ask Mirana about it later.

The Unicorn seemed to at last be convinced, but shook his head. "Marmoreal is a fair distance from here, and after slaying that creature - as well as the fight you interrupted - I don't know if I have the energy to carry you both." Alice suspected that might have more to do with a small gash on his right rear leg, but declined from saying so. If he didn't want to show weakness in front of his counterpart, she wouldn't force him to. She didn't know what creature he was referring to, but presumed it had been one of Maleficent's. That he - and quite possibly the Lion as well - had opposed it seemed promising.

"Quite all right," Ozma assured him, walking to the Lion's side. "This noble fellow here reminds me quite a bit of a friend of mind back home, and I would be honored to accept a ride from him."

Which was all well and good, Alice thought, but it unfortunately left her with the one who kept calling her a monster. She'd rather just fly, but she supposed that the two did need supervision until they could get to the palace. Surely someone else could then take care of them. "Very well," she said quietly, slowly and carefully walking up to the Unicorn. Having ridden horses before, she had a fair idea of what to do. (Of course, those had come with saddles...) She held out a hand, palm up, for him to sniff, so he could satisfy himself that she was, in fact, _not _a monster. Almost reluctantly, he knelt down and allowed her to climb up onto his back. "It's funny," she mused as he stood back up. "I always loved the idea of unicorns when I was growing up, but I never really believed in them."

The Unicorn was silent for a long moment. "Well," he said at last. "If you believe in me... I'll start believing in you."

That surprised a laugh out of her. "All right, you've got a deal." Straightening up, she smiled as she was finally able to issue a command she'd been aching to say for longer then she was really aware of.

"To Marmoreal!" 

* * *

It was funny, really. Ever since the peculiar invasion had begun, she'd been hoping for a reprieve. And yet, now that she had one, she was even more tense then before.

Mirana allowed herself a wry smile as she walked through the courtyard. _Be careful what you wish for, indeed. _She was checking on the trees - she wasn't surprised that they were no happier with the constant gloom then she was - while she awaited news.

And there would be news forthcoming, she was certain of it. Something had changed. She couldn't quite say what, but as connected with the land as she was... A balance of some kind had been shifted.

She could only hope it would be in her favor.

"Your Highness!" She turned to see Nivens McTwisp dashing her way. She smoothly altered course to intercept him, hoping the news he bore would be good. He had remained in her employ after the defeat of the Red Queen, but she had allowed him to resume wearing his customary jacket. "A small party is approaching."

"Can you tell who it is?" She allowed only part of her curiosity to reach the surface.

"Oh, I can tell you that." Having had Chessur pop out of nowhere on her like that more times then she could count, she wasn't even phased by it anymore. McTwisp flinched once before he could stop himself. "It's the Lion and the Unicorn. They made some new friends."

It was only the fact that a queen had to regal and composed at all times in front of her subjects that kept her from groaning aloud. _Not those two again. _Dealing with them was maddening, and thanks to her bloodline, she was already facing an uphill battle in _that _respect.

McTwisp frowned. "Well, get rid of them! Don't they know the Queen has far more important things to worry about then their silly rivalry?"

Chessur chuckled as he drifted lazily through the air nearby. "Oh, I think she'll want to meet these new arrivals."

She could already hear the distant clatter of hooves getting closer. She restrained a sigh; the sooner she greeted them, the sooner she could get rid of them. She turned to look at the figures bustling down the tree-lined path. The dim light made it hard to make out any details until they'd gotten close enough for the two riders to dismount their respective steeds, one remaining near them while the other...

Wait. Was that...?

Could it be...?

"_Alice._.." she whispered. She'd known Alice would return - had proof of it - but this soon... Shock had settled in on her face when she'd finally been able to see who she was, but it was swiftly giving way to a giddy delight that she hadn't experienced since... ever.

For her part, Alice had spent much of the ride thinking of just what she should say to her Queen when they finally met, determined to be as respectful and proper as the situation warranted, while also getting across everything she _didn't _want to say. Now that they were face to face, though, words fled from her mind, and all she could do was walk forward and envelope Mirana in a tight hug.

_Oh, God, she even **smells** good, _Alice marveled, holding onto her for much longer then any sense of propriety would allow for. Mirana didn't object in the slightest, and actually took several seconds longer then Alice to let go and step back. "Your Highness," Alice said somewhat belatedly, giving a properly respectful curtsy and somehow still looking dignified, despite her bedraggled appearance.

Mirana clasped her hands together in front of her, a delighted laugh escaping her. "Where are...? How...? When did...?"

Alice smiled - or had she just not stopped? "It is a story of some length, my Queen." Hmm. She found she liked saying that. My Queen. _My _Queen.

Mine.

First things first, though, she supposed. "This is Ozma, Queen of the Land of Oz," she said, gesturing vaguely behind her without once taking her eyes from Mirana.

The White Queen's smile didn't falter once, but Ozma couldn't quite miss the way it sharpened as a suddenly harder stare shifted to her. "Greetings," she said pleasantly enough, though there was an undercurrent of 'And you are here because _why_?' that Alice didn't seem to notice.

"Thank you for your hospitality, your Highness," Ozma said with a respectful nod. "I do apologize for my appearance, and for arriving unannounced like this, but I assure you circumstances allowed for nothing else."

"The same evil that threatens Underland - Maleficent - struck at her kingdom first," Alice added, not _quite _as oblivious as she seemed.

"I have come to offer what little aid I might in combating her."

"You are welcome here," Mirana told her, feeling a measure of her hostility drain away. She was not so far gone that she held no sympathy for the other queen's situation.

"Thank you."

"It is good to see you again, my champion," she said softly... though not so much so that Ozma wouldn't be able to overhear.

"The feeling is entirely mutual, I assure you," Alice replied.

"Your champion does you credit," Ozma offered, while Alice took the opportunity to exchange quiet greetings with McTwisp. Neither queen really noticed. "I would be dead several times over, or at the very least still imprisoned, were it not for her."

"I'm glad she was able to assist you," Mirana said evenly, trying to calm herself even as her blood boiled at the thought of some other queen trying to stake a claim on _her _champion. Something indefinable caught Alice's attention, and she quickly straightened up, placing a hand on Mirana's arm. Cool serenity seemed to spread out from the point of contact, pushing back the surging madness in her veins. Mirana shot her a look of mixed surprise and wonder, then turned her attention back to the matter at hand. "Come, I'll have rooms prepare for you at once. I'm certain you wish to clean up and rest from your long journey."

"It has been a long day," Alice allowed, inwardly stunned that it had only been a _day _since this whole mess had begun - for her, anyway.

Mirana sent McTwisp to handle the Lion and the Unicorn - which he did with a look that said plainly he was doing it under protest - and lead her guests inside. She asked a page to escort Ozma and Petunia to a set of guest quarters - which he did after goggling at Alice for a few moments - then took Alice to her own rooms. "I believe I have something of yours," she told Alice as she shut the door behind them... and locked it.

"Do y-" Alice broke off as she spotted her missing frock coat carefully folded up and resting on a chair. "That's impossible," she finally managed.

Mirana smiled. "Is it?"

Alice opened her mouth to answer... and closed it again. Well, no, obviously it wasn't, since it was _there. _"It's... highly improbable, then."

Mirana laughed again, a sound which sent a rather enjoyable quiver up Alice's spine. "Perhaps so. But I must thank you for your assistance during that encounter. Without it... I shudder to think of what might have happened."

Alice shook her head. "I don't understand," she admitted. "How could that have been _real_?"

"Does it matter?" Mirana countered. "It is enough that it was. Now, tell me of how you came to return to Underland."

Alice sat down on one of the sitting room's couches. "All right, but it's a long story," she warned. "You might want to get comfortable." In response, Mirana stepped out of her shoes and jumped up onto the couch with her, curling up at the other end.

Alice grinned, thrilled that Mirana was allowing her a glimpse of a side of herself that no one else ever got to see. She took a deep breath and began her story.

It took a while.

It was obvious that Mirana didn't like hearing about the danger she'd been in, but she only interrupted to ask relevant questions, or clarify details. Her eyes never left Alice's face once, and a few times Alice had to consciously keep herself from getting too distracted. "...and then we came right here," she finally finished. She'd caught Mirana reacting more then once during her story, indicating she might just have answers to some of Alice's questions. "What I don't understand is why."

"Why what?"

"Why is Maleficent attacking Underland? Why try and convince me to stay with her, when she had no problem in overcoming and imprisoning even that land's rightful ruler? Why keep Iracebeth alive? Why was I able to affect that one pirate in the first place? Why could I see glimpses of green stormclouds even before all this began? Just... why?"

Mirana's fingers were fluttering. That probably wasn't a good sign.

"I suspect that her attacks on Underland and Iracebeth's imprisonment are directly connected," the Queen said at length. "You were able to see the storm and touch the pirate because you no longer belong to just one world. And I suspect..."

When she didn't continue, Alice prompted, "Yes?"

"Ozma is correct in that the civilization of your world supplanted the magic that had been there previously. However, magic is energy, and as such cannot be destroyed. It can be diluted and suppressed, but not destroyed. You may well carry a bit of magical potential within you. Had you never come to Underland, you likely would have continued on with your life, never suspecting anything."

Alice honestly wasn't certain how to react to that idea, so she settled for a hollow laugh. "And here I thought it might have been that Jabberwocky blood I drank."

Mirana flinched. "I doubt that helped matters at all, for which you have my apologies."

"If that's what let me help you when you needed it, you have nothing to apologize for."

Mirana smiled and inclined her head, though she didn't look entirely convinced. "As for why else she might wish you to stay... You should not underestimate the value of your company, Alice."

Alice blushed. "You're biased," she accused playfully.

"Perhaps." Mirana didn't bother trying to deny it. "Now, I suspect you may wish to clean up. I've had a bath drawn for you."

While she wondered when, exactly, Mirana had done that - they hadn't parted company since Alice had arrived in Marmoreal, and that _hadn't _been one of the instructions she'd given to the page - Alice was very much willing to just accept that she had. Even if she could somehow forget about the fact that Mirana was the queen, she didn't feel clean enough to be comfortable around much of anyone, just then. "Thank you," she replied, getting to her feet and stifling a wince when they didn't appreciate it. "I dare say I could use one."

Mirana stood as well, and Alice caught a brief glimpse of something in her eyes that she didn't like. She gestured off to the side, managing a smile that didn't seem nearly as strained as it really was. "It's through there. I shall have clean clothing waiting for you when you're done." Alice thanked her again and walked to the door. Mirana turned away, not allowing her shoulders to sag until she'd heard it open and close.

The Jabberwocky blood. Damn it all, how had she missed that?

That she'd had no idea about Alice's magical heritage - indeed, that it was even now only a theory - was suddenly unimportant. She'd placed her champion - her love - in danger. She'd drawn the forces of evil down upon her head and sent her into the arms of another queen. A kinder, far more stable queen.

_You know Alice wasn't looking at her like that. _

Perhaps it was for the best. She would only hurt Alice, after all. That was all she ever did.

_That isn't true. _

And just who did Ozma think she was, daring to try and lay claim to _her _champion? She reached down to the surface of the desk she didn't even notice she'd drifted over to and picked up a letter opener. Perhaps she should take this and go pay the intruding queen a little visit. Teach her exactly what she thought of poachers.

(Something was wrong.)

Jab it into her neck, rip and tear, watch the blood flow. She nearly laughed aloud, imagining the look of shock and horror on the aggravating blond's face as she watched her lifeblood drip, drip, drip away.

(Something was very wrong.)

_This has to stop. _

Blood. That was the source of the problem, she knew. Oh, how she knew. Magic and madness were inextricably linked in her family; they always had been. She could feel it, even then, surging through her veins, screaming at her to forget her vows, forget that Ozma could help, and go make her scream. Make her beg.

Make her die.

She would not give in. She never had, once she'd taken her vows. It had been close, a few times... So very close. But she knew what to do. She had to get it out of her, and since the madness was in her blood...

She pulled back the sleeve on her left arm, then slashed at her own wrist.

She thought she heard something in the background, but was too absorbed in what she was doing to pay it any attention. She'd avoided any veins or arteries - she'd done this enough times to be able to do without even needing to look - which was good in that it wouldn't kill her, but bad in that it meant this was going to take some time. Perhaps another cut would speed things up.

She didn't have a chance to find out. Her right hand, still clutching the letter opener tightly, was abruptly seized and forced upward, away from her wrist, and she found herself looking into the wide eyes of an alarmed Alice.

_No... No, no, no! This wasn't supposed to happen, she wasn't supposed to see..._ It occurred to her that she'd never heard the bathroom door open, and she realized that Alice must not have actually gone inside. She'd just opened and closed the door, and... watched.

"Why?" Alice whispered.

"It's the only way to make it stop," she replied, just as quiet.

"But... your vows..."

"This doesn't qualify as harm," she explained. Alice needed to _understand, _and she obviously didn't now. "The madness... It's like an infection. It has to be cut out."

Thankfully, Alice didn't bother pointing out that that wasn't the way infections worked. "That isn't the only way."

Mirana sighed. "Believe me, I have tried every-" She abruptly broke off, her words evaporating faster then Chessur as Alice held up her bleeding wrist and lowered her mouth to it.

For a moment, she wondered if Alice planned to kiss it better, somehow. And that may well have been her intention... but it was _not _what happened. The blood hadn't stopped, after all, and when it began spilling into her mouth, Alice had little choice but to swallow it.

_How curious. _

Once, during one of her riding lessons, her horse had been spooked by a snake in the brush, and had thrown her off. She'd ended up biting her tongue when her head had struck the ground, and had never quite forgotten the unpleasant metallic taste of her blood.

This... didn't taste anything like that.

She couldn't quite come up with any words to describe what it _did _taste like, but it wasn't bad. In fact... She swallowed again, and Mirana moaned in pleasure.

She had no idea how to respond to that. She did know that she liked the sound, though. Experimentally, she pulled on the wound, allowing her tongue to sweep over it. Mirana's moan was more guttural this time, and her knees buckled, forcing Alice to help her stay upright. "Do you have a bandage?" she asked without moving her mouth from where it was. Mirana needed to know that she trusted and loved _every _part of her, and this was the only way she could think of to do it.

Hopefully, she could convince her before she stopped and really thought about what she _was _doing.

It took Mirana a few moments to answer. "No need. The bleeding should have stopped, by now." Alice tentatively let go and straightened up. Sure enough, the flow of blood had abated. Indeed, the cut itself seemed to be vanishing. Seeing Alice's puzzled look, Mirana explained, "I did take some precautions beforehand. This isn't the first time I've had to do this."

"I hope it will be the last."

She sighed. "I've told you-"

"No, I've told _you,_" Alice interrupted. "That isn't the only way. You've got me, now."

"Alice..."

"When we ran into the Lion and the Unicorn, the latter said something that made me wonder," she said, seemingly out of nowhere. "That if I'd become Champion, they would have felt it. The way he said it... He meant something different from when you named me your champion to slay the Jabberwocky, didn't he?"

"Um..." The Queen looked thrown by the subject change, but rallied admirably. "Well, y-yes. Underland... It is a place of magic. One might even say it _is _magic. I am connected to it, both by birthright and by station. There is a saying: 'The Queen and her land are one.' Well, a Champion would also be connected to it. He or she would be able to draw strength from it, be able to sense where they might be needed... and be sensed in return by those sensitive to the magic of the land."

Alice needed a moment to process that. Mirana's explanation brought up a whole slew of questions. "Might that have something to do with why Maleficent wanted me?"

"She would have known no such connection existed... but she also might have wanted to keep you there to ensure it remained that way. She would know that I would be strengthened by having a Champion at my side."

"How does one become a Champion?"

"It requires the reciting of an oath, and the genuine, pure desire to do so."

"I daresay you would have had more Champions then you knew what to do with after your sister took power if _that _was all it took," Alice observed dryly. She frowned. "And if the Queen and her land are one, then how..."

"Despite wearing the crown, she was _not _the Queen. I was."

"Which is why she couldn't just destroy you," Alice guessed. She rather doubted it had been because of familial affection. After all, even the Red King hadn't been spared.

"Yes. She didn't have the power. As for the oath..." She smiled. "That is only part of it, yes. I must also accept the Champion as such."

"What is this oath, anyway?"

Mirana tilted her head briefly in thought. It had been a while since she'd last heard it, after all. "'I pledge myself to Underland and her Queen. I vow to put no others before them, and I will defend them with my life. I am yours.'"

"That's it?"

She nodded. "Yes. With magic of that level, nothing more is required."

"Why didn't you ever ask me to do that when I was last here?" Alice asked. "Surely it would have helped."

"Because if I had... you would never have been able to leave."

Alice looked disconcerted. "What do you mean by that, exactly?"

"I would not have kept you here against your will," Mirana assured her. "I merely mean that it would have been... difficult to stay away. Uncomfortable. And... you might not have wanted to leave."

"It wasn't all that easy as it was."

"Exactly."

And forcing her to do something against her will was obviously anathema to Mirana. Which meant she'd never ask. Alice smiled. That was all right. She didn't have to. "I pledge myself to Underland and her Queen. I vow to put no others before you, and I will defend you with my life. I am yours."

She'd never seen pure, naked _shock _on Mirana's face before, but she was certainly looking at it now. Several moments later, Mirana had recovered her faculties enough to realize what Alice was trying to tell her - that she had no intention of leaving her ever again - and her smile was positively beatific. "As we are yours," she replied, and Alice felt the magic rush into her. Her stomach - which had been a little twitchy since she'd... cleaned Mirana's wound, was the most polite way she could think of to phrase it - clenched, and a violent tremor passed through her muscles. After that...

After that, she felt fine. Great, even. She didn't even feel tired, anymore. "That was-"

Mirana closed the already small distance between them and claimed Alice's lips with her own.

Alice may have been considered strange by her peers growing up, but in some respects her mother had no cause for concern about what kind of proper lady she was. She had never _really _been kissed before, excepting small pecks on the lips. And never by someone who _truly _felt something for her. As a result, she had only ever been able to imagine what it might have been like.

As Mirana's tongue poked at her lips, begging for entrance Alice was only too happy to grant it, she decided her imagination was woefully inadequate.

She became aware of the desk behind her only when she bumped into it, and she had to quickly throw out her arms behind her to brace herself on it, lest she fall flat on her back. Mirana paused only long enough to shift her lips to Alice's neck, fastening on to a spot just above her jugular. Alice heard herself moan, but didn't care, silly little things like embarrassment utterly unimportant. She _knew _how Mirana felt about her, now, knew it as well as she did her own feelings, and saw no point in pretending she wasn't enjoying her love's attentions.

It was actually Mirana that pulled back. Alice, for her part, had given in. Given in to her body's demands, given in to Mirana. "You... should go take your bath."

It took a few moments to scrape up enough coherent thought to form a sentence. "R-Right. That would... be a good idea."

Perhaps a cold bath.

It was, perhaps, one of the fastest baths she'd taken in her entire life. Not because of temperature - it was as warm and pleasant as she could have ever asked for - but because she was chafing inside at being away from Mirana. She hated leaving her dirty clothes on the bathroom floor, but didn't know what else to do with them. Lacking anything clean to change into, once she'd dried herself off, she simply wrapped a towel around herself and walked into the bedroom.

And stopped dead in her tracks.

Mirana had taken the opportunity to change as well. Whether because she'd gotten blood on her dress, or because Alice had gotten it dirty, she'd exchanged it for a sheer white garment that was so thin it was all but transparent.

Alice swallowed, trying to get some moisture down a suddenly dry throat.

Without a word, Mirana rose and walked over to Alice, taking hold of her arm and leading her to the bed. She sat Alice down on it, settling in behind her, and began brushing her hair, humming softly as she did so.

Surrounded as she was by love and warmth, Alice couldn't recall being so happy and content in her entire life.


	6. Chapter 6

Title: Choices (6/?)  
Pairing: Alice/Mirana (White Queen), implied Dorothy/Ozma  
Rating: Yeah, we've probably reached an R-rating with this chapter.  
Disclaimer: If you recognize them, chances are they aren't mine.  
Summary: It's the choices we make that make us who we are. 

* * *

Waking up the next morning, it took Alice several moments to figure out just where, exactly, she was.

It wasn't at all like when she had woken the previous day. Then, she had been confused, wondering what had disturbed her, and feeling a curious impulse to get out of bed and _do _something. Now, on the other hand...

Mirana made a quiet sound in her sleep and snuggled closer to her.

Now, she might have trouble finding the motivation to go anywhere even if her life depended on it.

As worn down as she'd been from the day's events, she'd actually fallen asleep more then once while Mirana was brushing her hair. Thankfully, the Queen had seemed more amused then anything, and after she was finished, she'd helped Alice prepare for bed - and she couldn't quite help but suspect that Mirana had deliberately sought out the shortest, skimpiest silken negligee that she owned for her to wear - and slid under the sheets with her, holding her close and resting her chin on Alice's shoulder.

Waking up in Mirana's arms, the Queen's beautiful face so close to her own... It was heaven. How was it even possible for her to feel so much love and contentment, all at once?

Mirana herself looked peaceful, so much so that Alice didn't have the heart to wake her just yet. She suspected that, despite what she projected outwardly, "peaceful" wasn't something the ruler experienced often. So Alice let her sleep, taking the opportunity to just look at her, drinking her in like the exquisite treat for the eyes that she was. It also gave her time to think about the heat that had consumed her when Mirana had kissed her.

This was both good and bad.

It was good in that she found the remembrance pleasurable, and it gave her time to sort out her reactions. Never in her life had she _ever _experienced something so intense. She didn't think she'd ever been quite so desired, either, which felt nice on multiple levels. And as Champion, she was now inextricably linked to both the land and the Queen. She had a purpose, she had someone to love who loved her in return, and she had dear friends whom she cared for as deeply as her own family, if not more so. All they had to do was get rid of Maleficent, and everything would be perfect.

She just barely managed not to snort in amusement. _All _they had to do?

Of course, being given so much time to think had its bad side. Truthfully, it was a little _too _pleasurable, and she could feel that same heat returning. Only now, she had no idea what to **do** about it. She'd never been in love before, nor had she ever run into someone who could ignite her blood without even a word.

_No, don't start thinking about the blood. _

Which was a good idea, since she really didn't know what TO think about that. She hadn't felt nearly as disturbed by it as she would have thought, and it had obviously excited Mirana. Unfortunately, that left her at a loss as to what to do next. Even if Mirana were awake, she would have been uncertain. Unlike some of her (former) peers, she'd never engaged in any clandestine affairs, so she wasn't even sure how to pleasure a man, let alone another woman. She suspected - or hoped, at any rate - that Mirana could help her with that, since she probably _did _have experience in that area, if the way she kissed was any indication.

Not that she wanted to think about any of the ways her Queen might have _gotten _that experience. She didn't like the thought of Mirana with anyone but her.

Judging by the way Mirana had reacted to meeting Ozma, that feeling seemed to be mutual.

_I hope I don't disappoint you, _she mused as she ran a hand through Mirana's ivory locks. Mirana stirred in response to her touch - and perhaps, a part of her considered, her thoughts - and fixed her with a sleepy gaze. "Good morning, Alice," she said, not moving an inch.

_It would seem I'm not the only one who does not wish to go anywhere, _Alice decided with a smile. "I don't see how it could be otherwise, with you here."

"Such a sweet tongue you have," Mirana murmured with a radiant smile of her own. "I believe I should examine it in more detail." She reached up and pulled Alice into a kiss that went on for several minutes and left the Champion breathless and physically aching with desire when she pulled back. "My poor Alice. Such pent up need. I would be a poor queen indeed, were I to allow you to remain so." She gently pushed Alice onto her back, then slowly slid a leg across hers, sensuously pulling herself forward until she was straddling her. She leaned down until their noses just barely touched. "Please, allow me to grant you some release," she whispered, her eyes never leaving Alice's.

Alice couldn't look away, either, but she did manage to nod and breathe out a nearly silent, "Please do."

Mirana seized her lips in another dizzying kiss, almost distracting Alice from the hands that were caressing her chest.

Almost. But not quite.

Alice's breathing increased further as Mirana's manipulations of her breasts pushed her already inflamed libido to previously unimaginable heights. But Mirana didn't hurry. She was slow and steady, as if determined to drive Alice as mad as the Hatter. Alice could have wept with relief when Mirana sat her up long enough to remove the flimsy garment she'd been given to sleep in, then pushed her back down and replaced her hands with her mouth.

She'd never even thought of such a thing, herself, but the loving attention Mirana paid to her breasts - gentle kisses, electrifying licks, and suckling that ranged from maddeningly light to gloriously intense - made it clear that she'd have trouble thinking of much of anything else for quite some time.

Or so she thought, right up until Mirana's fingers reached a certain incredibly sensitive bundle of nerves between her legs.

She bucked so hard, she nearly threw her lover off of her, crying out in ecstasy. Mirana let out a liquid chuckle. "Just wait. It gets better."

That seemed unlikely. She'd never felt anything so intense before in her life. "How could-"

Mirana's tongue replaced her fingers again, and Alice decided she should stop asking such foolish questions.

Then there were fingers pushing up against her entrance, pushing _inside _it, and she could feel her hips reflexively start to move in counterpoint to the new sensation. "Mirana, please!" she panted out. "I need... I-I need..."

"I know." She nearly felt the words more then heard them. If Mirana did know what she wanted, though, she didn't act on it. She continued a slow and steady pace of teasing, pulling back any time Alice got close to the edge. She kept it up for longer then Alice could keep track of - which wasn't a terribly difficult feat, given how erratically Alice's brain seemed to be firing just then - until the blonde woman was little more then a collection of screaming nerves.

_Then _she acted.

The slow and gentle fingers abruptly became fast and far more forceful, while teasing licks were replaced by wonderful suction combined with rapid - yet still somewhat gentle - licking, and Mirana's free hand reached up to play with one of her breasts.

It was all too much.

Alice's climax struck with seemingly physical force, and she was barely even aware of her screams of pleasure. She lost track of reality for long enough to make her wonder if she'd lost consciousness briefly, and the next thing she knew, she was sprawled limply on the bed, Mirana staring down at her. The Queen's eyes burned with naked lust, and, yes, there was the madness she usually tried to keep suppressed. She leaned closer and whispered, "_**MINE.**_"

The absolute truth of that declaration caused Alice's body to vibrate like a plucked harp string, a shiver of perfect agreement sliding up her spine.

"She can't have you," Mirana continued, the fire in her eyes pulling Alice in, despite how tired she was. Or had been, anyway. She could feel strength seeping back into her body from somewhere, and part of her realized that it was actually coming from Underland itself. "You're _mine._"

"Can I have **you**?" Alice asked, licking her lips.

Mirana closed her eyes and shuddered, and when she reopened them, she was herself again. "As often as you like," she purred.

Alice forgot about the world outside of the bedroom for the next two or three hours, and didn't care in the slightest. 

* * *

They did eventually have to dress, of course.

As much as Alice would have loved to stay in Mirana's bed for the foreseeable future - she was sure she could talk Time into stopping for a while - there was a war on, and Maleficent wouldn't be affected by anything that happened in Underland. So they would formulate a plan, get rid of her once and for all, and then Alice would be free to attend to her Queen at her leisure.

Not that she hadn't wanted to get rid of her before, but with motivation like _that._.. Well.

"The others will be meeting us for breakfast, then?" Alice asked as she tried with mixed success to tame her hair. She had selected a simple, light blue dress to wear - once she recovered enough strength to stand unaided - which was both comfortable and easy to move in. It looked good on her, but her hair wasn't quite cooperating. Eventually, she just gave up and settled for tying it back. She knew Mirana liked it to hang loose, but hopefully the enhanced view of her neck would prove adequate compensation.

"Yes." Mirana, shockingly enough, was wearing white. "As much as I dislike spoiling a meal with serious conversation, time is of the essence. Sooner or later, Maleficent will act. We must discover her goal before she does, or we may not be able to stop her from meeting it."

Alice had been thinking about that, and what little Ozma had been able to tell her. "Would it be fair to say you know your sister better then anyone else?" she asked, seemingly at random.

Mirana, who had been standing several paces away while she watched her lover finish dressing (while certainly not plotting out the fastest ways of getting her back **out** of that dress again, why would you even think such a thing?), looked confused as the topic of conversation suddenly changed to Iracebeth, but answered as best she could, none the less. "I... suppose so, yes. Though due to her tendency to kill those around her over any slight, real or imagined, that may not mean as much as you might think."

Alice nodded, accepting that, but pressed on, regardless. "So, if she were to hide something, do you think you could figure out where, and how to get at it?"

"...possibly. Why?"

"I had a thought."

"Would you show me?"

Alice blinked. "I can... do that?"

"You can with me, but only if you choose to," Mirana explained. "We are bound to each other, directly and through Underland. And, I suspect, in yet another fashion. Blood holds magic, after all, and... well."

_Whoops. _Maybe she was going to have to think about that, after all.

"So, that would have connected us, as well," Mirana continued. "I can't hear everything you're thinking, don't worry. But I can pick up on your emotional state, and if you concentrate and focus on making me see or hear something, I suspect I will." Of course, such a connection went both ways, as the White Queen proceeded to demonstrate by showing Alice an image that-

Alice felt her cheeks flush. "Don't start something we have no time to finish, my love."

"Just testing how well it worked," Mirana replied, the very picture of innocence.

Alice, quite naturally, was not fooled for one second. "Indeed. And now that we've established that..." She concentrated on her theory. It had a fair number of holes in it, but it _felt _right.

Judging by Mirana's sudden frown, she got through loud and clear. "It's possible. Given how no one ever heard anything about that, I suspect she was unable to find a way to turn it to her advantage. It has been... quite some time, indeed, since I last visited Salazen Grum - since I was last welcome there - but she would have hidden it there, if anywhere. As for where... Likely somewhere in her chambers, locked inside something to keep anyone from sensing it."

"And considering how she felt about you, she might well have established defenses that would react... negatively, to your presence," Alice said delicately.

"That might kill me, you mean?" Mirana waved off any concern, having long since adjusted to the idea that her sister wanted her dead. "That wouldn't surprise me. But I would have no time to go searching myself, anyway, so it hardly matters." She held out her hand, smiling again as Alice took it. The connection between them seemed to flare brighter with physical contact, and the happiness and love that poured forth from her Champion did more to calm her inner demons and stabilize her sanity then any magic or alchemy she'd ever encountered.

And Alice, despite getting a good glimpse of what lurked inside her, would still stand by her side, no matter what. She was staying, she was Mirana's, and she _liked _it that way.

Mirana nearly floated on air the entire way to the small breakfast parlor. The only reason she didn't was because a tolerantly amused Alice kept tugging her back to the floor, lest someone stare.

Petunia was waiting for them near the parlor's doorway. Alice smiled and greeted her warmly, not at all surprised when the fairy decided to use her shoulder as a seat. Fortunately, even Mirana's jealous instincts weren't such as would be set off by a fairy. To Alice's delight, in addition to Ozma and Chessur, Tarrant and Mally were also present, and she hurried over to greet them. Mirana trailed after her, observing in fond amusement as the three friends embraced each other in greeting - for a moment, Tarrant seemed to be reintroducing himself to Mally, which could have been anything from another example of his own madness to a clever joke. With him, it was hard to tell, sometimes. That embrace didn't bother the White Queen, either - she could tell, now, that Alice thought of him more like a brother then anything else.

Breakfast was served in short order, a lovely meal of scrambled eggs - despite what Alice thought, there _were _non-sentient animals in Underland - toast, and ice cream sundaes, with a delicious blend of tea to drink. Ozma seemed bemused by the menu - especially the idea that salads were considered dessert - while Alice, more accustomed to Underland, didn't even blink.

Conversation stayed mostly light while they ate, Ozma explaining a bit about her kingdom, and being told about Underland in return. The March Hare, Alice learned upon inquiry, had returned to his home after the Red Queen's defeat. She could only hope this would help calm his frazzled nerves. "Someone has been helping him with repairs, I should hope," she commented, remembering the ramshackle state of the windmill and tea party table when she'd seen them last, especially in comparison to her first visit.

"Oh, aye," Tarrant assured her. "I hope you can stay for a bit, after this is all over. I'm sure he'd love to see you before you had to go."

"Silly Hatter," she remarked with a smile. "I'm not going anywhere, this time. I'm afraid you're all stuck with me." This lead to several excited exclamations, an explanation about how she was now Champion to Underland and her Queen, and more happy comments.

Warmth and happiness spread from Alice through the bond she and Mirana shared, making the Queen smile. Except for Ozma and Petunia, everyone there knew her well enough to tell it was a real smile, and were mildly chagrined to realize just how many of her smiles beforehand had been fake. Well, Alice decided, she'd just have to do whatever it took to make sure Mirana didn't need to put on that mask ever again.

Before she could begin plotting out their post-Maleficent life, though... "As much as I hate to disrupt the mood, we do need to get down to business, I should think. Fortunately, barring any unforeseen complications, I believe we have learned enough to be able to take care of Maleficent once and for all."

"Take care of who, now?"

Hatter's question prompted an explanation of just who and what was attacking Underland, after which Alice smoothly segued into her suspicions as to the why of it. "I don't believe it's a coincidence that we discovered a passageway from Oz to Underland, which had been relocated by someone to the most inaccessible place possible, at the same time we found that the Red Queen was being held and, I suspect, tortured for information about a missing magical object _from _Oz."

Ozma started. "You mean..."

"I believe Iracebeth discovered and made off with the Emerald, yes," Alice confirmed. "She most likely set up defenses to keep her sister from even noticing it, let alone taking it. Unfortunately for Maleficent, the very nature of her creations would keep them from getting a hold of it, either." Because, really, the only sure-fire way of keeping someone with death magic away from your prized possessions was to require an absence of that very energy as a security measure. Or that was the way Alice saw it, anyway. "Likely, that is also what she wanted from me. Knowing from Stayne that I'd been to Salazun Grum, and that I have no dominion over the dead myself, Maleficent may well have judged me to be an ideal candidate to find and retrieve it."

"She will likely be displeased to find that is no longer the case," Mirana commented, sounding anything _but _displeased.

"Indeed. So, as I see it, we have little recourse but to take the fight to Maleficent. It is obvious that she desperately wishes to get her hands on this emerald, and will continue attacking until she has it... or is made to stop." Which was not to say that she was excited about going off to battle once again. She'd made her peace with the Jabberwocky, and no one under Maleficent's command was actually alive, but she did not - nor, she suspected, would she ever - relish the prospect of fighting. In this case, though, it simply could not be avoided. "To do so, there are several steps we must take. Step one will be retrieving Dorothy Gale." Because if one was going to be fighting for the freedom of Oz, then having Oz's actual champion along was only common sense.

Ozma perked up immediately at the prospect, which she knew Mirana didn't miss. (Truthfully, no one really missed it, but Alice was paying more attention to Mirana then any of the others.) Another benefit, which she didn't mention, was that having Dorothy around to take up Ozma's attention would certainly help Mirana convince herself that the other queen posed no threat to their relationship. A moment later, though, Ozma deflated a bit. "I'm afraid I can't summon her here with so much of my magic stolen, and that passage to the Otherside you mentioned leads to the wrong continent. By the time Dorothy got there, or we traveled to her, it would be too late."

Alice nodded. "True, but I believe we can travel from here right to her. The precedent has already been established, after all."

Ozma frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I may not know much about your Dorothy, but did she not make her own way to Oz for her first visit?"

"Well... Yes, in theory. Though that was more of a freak natural occurrence then anything else."

"Perhaps, perhaps not. Nevertheless, we can do the same now, here."

"Cross from Underland to Kansas via tornado? Impossible."

Alice smiled. "I make a habit of believing six impossible things before breakfast." She scooped the last of her ice cream onto her spoon. "That's number four." Declining to comment on the other five, she instead ate her ice cream.

"I can send you there," Mirana said, responding to a silent inquiry from Alice. "However, due to the current state of things, I will not be able to accompany you. I am confident you can manage to return on your own, though."

Given how much more she knew about magic then Alice, the Champion was inclined to take her Queen's word for it. "Don't worry, we won't be long," she assured her. _After all, _she added silently, _Dorothy is not likely going to be hard to convince to come with us. _Having saved Oz twice before, and stayed in constant contact with Ozma for all the years since, there really was no reason she _wouldn't _want to come.

Unless she just hated tornadoes.

Setting aside that unhelpful worry, Alice turned to the others. "Now, step two will fall to the lot of you, if you're willing."

"**course** we're willing!" Mally interjected, seeming almost offended at the idea that any of them wouldn't want to help Alice.

She smiled. "Let me finish, first. We need to have the emerald. I don't know much about magic, but that Iracebeth couldn't use it suggests that either it only works in Oz, or only native Ozians can make use of it." She raised an inquiring eyebrow at Ozma.

The monarch looked thoughtful. "History tells us that it is quite powerful, indeed. I've never heard of anyone not from Oz trying to use it, and prior to this, never suspected it had ever left Oz. That could well be the case."

Nodding, Alice returned her gaze to Mally and the others. "So while Iracebeth couldn't make use of it, Ozma can. And given the theft of most of her magic, she's going to need it." Because she might not know the woman all that well, but she _knew _Ozma would never be able to sit back and let others fight to reclaim her kingdom without her. Not if she could help it. "Also, there's always a chance Maleficent could convince some other poor soul to go and get it for her, so we need to take it first. You three probably know Salazun Grum about as well as anyone. The emerald will probably be located in her chambers. If one of the playing cards can be spared, they might be able to lead you right there."

"I know where the Red Queen's chambers are," Mally asserted, though she didn't sound nearly so affronted. She knew, as Alice did, that such a trip would not be fun for the Hatter. Still, he'd never let them go without him.

"Good." She would say nothing further about the subject if Mally didn't. "Once those are both accomplished, we'll meet back here and assemble our forces for step three: traveling to Oz." She shook her head. "The mirror is no doubt under constant guard. We'd be slaughtered if we attempted to get there that way. I'm not sure how the passage between Neverland and Oz functions, exactly, but Maleficent is smart enough to figure out how I got there, and will either have that under guard, or will have just shut it down altogether."

"Dorothy can get us there with the Ruby Slippers," Ozma informed her. "Even with whatever interference Maleficent may be causing."

She would have appreciated a more detailed explanation of those shoes, but Alice knew that could wait. "Excellent. After that, all we have to worry about is stopping her." Which, not knowing all that much about what was going on in Oz just then, was something they couldn't really plan out in advance, except in the most abstract terms.

"Let's get started." 

* * *

I realize this chapter is shorter then usual, for which I apologize, but I wanted to get it out as soon as I can, and this just seemed like a logical stopping point. Had I kept going, it would have taken forever to reach another. ;)

Some of you - and you know who you are *winks* - have asked me if I'm planning on writing a sequel to this, after it's finished. Since we're getting closer to the end - two or three more chapters and an epilogue, I think, at most - I suppose I can say that while there won't be a _direct _sequel, there will be a future fic. In fact, you should have enough clues by now to guess just how far in the future. If you've been paying attention, that is. ;)


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